Photo of the Week
by Freeman F. & Mary Daniels Brown
St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.
Week of April 23, 2000
 |
|
On one of our expeditions into rural Indiana to scout out covered bridges, we came upon this tree. From a distance we thought we were seeing the work of beavers. But when we got up closer (inset), we saw that the tooth marks are horizontal, not vertical. "Must not have been beavers," we concluded. But a bit of research proved that our first, not our second, thought was correct. This is the World Book Encyclopedia's description of how a beaver gnaws on a tree: "To cut a tree, the beaver stands on its hind legs and uses its tail as a prop. It places its front paws on the tree trunk, and turns its head sideways." Hence, horizontal tooth marks!