Good Evening....
I have been looking for answer to this question for awhile... From what I can gather, everyone thinks it's rabbits... The branches have a 45 degree bite...and the poop is small and round... which makes sense to me and so I thought that was the answer. Until I was telling my hubby about it and he pointed out that some of the bites are over 3 feet high...can a rabbit reach that high... or is there something else... we do not have deer..... it really looks like it is going after all my hard woods - burning bush, walking stick and rose of sharron....I would love to hear what everyone thinks....Thanks!

 

It is rather hard to say without knowing where you are located but my money is on deer.

 

A 45 degree cut is most likely rabbits. Deer tend to rip at the branches. What other critters are where you are? Do you have large Jack Rabbits? They can stand up on their hind legs.

Newt

 

Newt and Pilot Dane...
Thanks for the response.....
We live in southeast michigan just outside of Detroit... I have never seen any jack rabbits or any signs of deer..nobody around me has ever said anything about seeing deer... I do know we have raccoons, ground hogs, skunks, and I have seen one fox...The poop is light in color where rabbits are dark? one more point.. the bushes are not bothered in the fall, winter or summer time.. just spring?
Thanks again for taking the time to help...

Nickie

 

I would definitely agree with the rabbit theory. I live in Minnesota and have witnessed a rabbit that lives under our deck stand on it hind legs and chew on and destroy our burning bush in the winter. We had just planted it. We put in a new one and put a small fence around it and wrapped the fence with burlap. The fence is about 2 feet in diameter all the way around and about 15inches high. It's been a year now and no chew marks on the new one.

 

Buggs, the scat of an animal can change color depending on what they have eaten. Rodents, rabbits and hares chew cuts are at a 45 degree angle. You can see scat of different mammals here.
http://www.terrierman.com/scatanswers.htm
http://wildwoodtracking.com/mammals/index.html
http://www.bear-tracker.com/animalscat.html

Another thing you can do is dust some flour around where you see activity and then compare the tracks.
http://www.cityofmelrose.org/departm...cks/tracks.jpg
http://www.bear-tracker.com/mammals.html

Newt

 

The rabbits in the Pacific Northwest love burning bushes, we have lost a couple to them. Putting a wire netting cage around the bush seems to work but the sure look ugly.