Bark-eating creature had a feast on trees in Idaho. Can you guess the animal?
A hungry, bark-eating critter had a feast on trees in Idaho forests.
The U.S. Forest Service - Nez Perce-Clearwater National Forests shared photos of the bare trees to Facebook on Feb. 20, asking if anyone knew which animal was the culprit.
Many social media users had the correct answer: a porcupine.
Forest officials said porcupines prefer “young shoots and limbs near the crown of a tree.”
“They like to perch on a branch, using it as a seat from which they can munch to their heart’s content,” forest officials said in the post.
But when the quill-covered creatures snack on tree bark, they prefer the young bark that’s found on the cambium layer of the tree, according to the Utah State University Forestry Extension.
This part is nutritious; however, it’s also the woody part of the tree. If all the wood is stripped from this layer around the trunk, the tree will die, the university said.
What to know about porcupines
The North American porcupine is the second-largest rodent in North America, after the beaver, according to Zoo Idaho.
The slow-moving animals can measure 2 to 3 feet long and weigh between 10 and 30 pounds.
They also have brown, black and yellow coloring with white-tipped quills, which they have about 30,000 of, according to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
Porcupines can use their quills to fend off predators.
They are nocturnal creatures that are found in forests, grasslands, desert shrub and tundra in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
