Stripping squirrels?

As I sat working at the computer yesterday, I noticed an odd behavior in the squirrels that frequent the garden. They would scramble up and down the trunks of trees with loose bark and start stripping off long strands of the bark.

I first noticed them doing this on the, long dead, tree trunks that hold up a portion of the trellis outside my office. Then I noticed them heading over to the redwood tree and doing the same to its shaggy bark.

I first thought that they were gathering nesting material, but instead of carrying the bark off somewhere, they merely dropped it and moved on. Off to Google, first stop on any fact-finding mission. I came across a large amount of information on squirrels stripping tree bark -- and none of it good. It seems bark stripping can be a big problem in some areas.

Click the photo for a short squirrel video. I didn't get any video of the stripping behavior, but this is an example of the squirrels that live here.

Tree Squirrels

"Tree squirrels strip the bark off redwood, redcedar, and certain other trees to line their nests. They seek the tender cambium layer of other trees for food. "

Natural History of Tree Squirrels

"The primary problem is bark stripping – a complicated situation because both Reds and Greys do it. Squirrels will strip away bark to eat it, but much of the stripping is done to gain access to the sugary sap underneath. During the winter, Red squirrels will also strip bark from dead or dying oak trees in order to harvest the Vuilleminia fungal mycelium (the body of the fungi that spreads masses of filaments out into its food source) underneath. Alternatively, squirrels may engage in so-called “ring-barking”, where they chew away a narrow ring of bark tissue from a branch. "

So it appears that perhaps the squirrels were just stripping the bark for nesting material, but this new behavior conic-ides with my reducing the food supply of the squirrels, so they might be looks for sap, as well.

Recently, as shown in our Replacing the Bird Feeder video, you saw how the new feeder effectively excludes the squirrels. I am wondering if their new behavior is in response to the reduction in their feed? I will put out a bit more seed specifically for the squirrels and see if that helps.

I like having the squirrels around. The lend an air of playfulness to the garden, but it seems I will have to keep them happy in order to prevent damage to the trees.

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