A couple of neighbors are at odds with one another without even knowing they are. It's all in my head. Each carries a different opinion about what causes the markings on trees, or rather the purpose of the markings on trees in the neighborhood. Deer are part of our surround here in Oakland. Mark, our neighbor who planted over one hundred trees on his property, says that the male deer leave their scent for the females by rubbing their antlers against the bark - especially of tender young trunks which then bear the scars for the rest of their lives. Think of it like a man leaving a calling card on a woman's doorstep, or graffiti in the men's room advertising studliness... only no one is generally scarred by calling cards or graffiti.
The other neighbor, Victor, is convinced that the dear deer are only trying to shed their antlers and in fact he has found several in the park onto which his property faces. Victor is a dear fellow who singlehandedly cares for the weak and new trees just getting their start in the park. He puts up wire cages around them as protection from the deer. Victor also is a scavenger, artist, and contractor who built a most marvelous tree house in one of the stately pines on his lot. Years of drought have weakened many of the old pines in Knowland Park, making them susceptible to bark beetle. Carcasses of many conifers are decaying, becoming homes to termites, ants, and beetles who then attract the woodpeckers, who go to work, finding the bugs both delicious and nourishing. Nature will reclaim, repurpose, recycle, and reuse everything in her time. Left on the ground, those shed antlers would take a very long time to decompose, but eventually, would give back to the soil much calcium, magnesium, and other minerals good for growing stout, healthy trees... IF there were enough water to support them. I'm glad Victor has repurposed the antlers as part of artful designs in his back yard which all can see and admire as we walk the trail . Alongside the evenly cut and precisely stacked fire-place-sized trunks and branches which Victor and his beloved use as their sole source of heat in winter, the antlers are like found sculpture.
I'm left with a dilemma about the deer stories: Which version of deer scraping trees do I prefer? Clearly the anthropomorphic version of the buck stopping here to leave his e-scent-ial calling card is more appealing, because it corresponds to a behavior I can relate to: The courting dance. I have no antlers. That is beyond my experience. While I have hefted a moose antler above my head while visiting the Yukon, I do not have the experience of wearing TWO sixty pound horns on my head day in and day out. I can only think: HEADACHE! What strong neck muscles those moose must have!
So, neighbor Mark's story / surmise is most appealing to me of the two. I wonder if antlers make the deer itch when they're first breaking through the skin/fur of their wee heads. Could it be that, like teeth coming through tender baby gums, antlers could cause some irritation and make the deer or moose or elk or antelope or rhinos want to rub up against something sturdy and fixed so as to ease the discomfort?
Whatever the cause, I've taken to looking more closely at the markings left on many of the trees in our neighborhood - mostly oak - to try and read the meaning.
Victor and Mark only know of one another through my relating the other's story to each of them. Perhaps one day they'll meet. Then again, perhaps they never will. I'm glad of two tree responsive neighbors with whom to converse on my frequent walkabouts in the hood.
Great Gloptious Gigantic Portions of Gratitude to you and your dear ones.
May the spirit of Thanksgiving sneak into every day of the coming year!
