View Full Version : Tracking Interest....food sign
British Red
12-04-2009, 21:29
A slightly less...gory or gross....one today (actually one of three)
Would anyone care to hazard a guess as to what consumed this acorn?
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3372/3434977447_60104d0aca.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3349/3434977439_fd2a00a253.jpg
Red
Mesquite
12-04-2009, 21:32
Was it a Dormouse?
I'd say a wood mouse.
It looks a bit irregular for a common dormouse but I could be wrong.
Do you have edible dormice where you are?
British Red
12-04-2009, 21:52
Edibles no...common definitely...weirdly tame ones too. Woodmice definitely and in plently.
Snip> Woodmice definitely and in plently.
I think we have a prime suspect. http://www.wayland.me.uk/assets/images/ranger.gif
British Red
12-04-2009, 22:33
Me too :)
That was certainly my call....no definitive evidence of course
The give away is if you can make out individual tooth marks around the hole.
Dormice leave remarkably smooth holes but Woodmice just chew in there.
bear knights
14-04-2009, 12:33
woodmouse. dormice will leave the teeth marks around the hole but the inside is all scooped out as they hold it between their front paws and twist it around. The photo looks to have more of the teeth marks that you'd see when someone was biting down on something, e.g. an apple, and the messy teeth marks around the edge smack of woodmouse, they often store caches in the tree roots too.
(bank vole don't tend to leave teeth marks around the edge although they will leave the biting down marks inside the hole)