mystery, does anyone have clues?

[surfer]

My son lives outside of Lubbock. He has some shrubs growing along the front of his house. He's just noticed that something has eaten all the branches and leaves from the bottom up about 2'. He says it looks neat and trimmed like it was gnawed or nibbled off. What lives there that would eat shrubs? I thought of deer but I wouldn't think they would eat from the bottom up. Rabbits? Anyone have any clues? Thanks

[jross]

Things are changing, and new animals are moving in and/or old animals are moving back, but my first guess is a jack rabbit. It's about the right size and eats plants leaves and woody parts.

[IronfootMcGurk]

I vote rabbits. If it is from the ground down, then gophers. This reminds me of the time 20+ years ago when we tried to start fruit trees on the family tract up near the Red. What the rabbits didn't eat, the gophers got. And after I armored every planting with wire mesh from two feet underground to three feet up, the caterpillars came along and consumed every bud. Iris did o.k. on the hills. But something even ate most of the cactus I planted. How the hackberry and soapberry manage to live, I don't know.

Git yo'sel' some coyotes to take care of them rabbits.

[smcrorey]

DEFINITELY rabbits....


.....just as an aside... if he happens to locate a set of night scopes and a web cam, I'd love to get those back. >.>;

[Firemall]

A few thoughts ---1--Rabbits imo yes ,but maybe----------
2--Prairie Dogs ??
3--Racoons---I don't know what a coon eats. Hmmm

[surfer]

Thanks for the imput y'all.
I thought of rabbits, a jack rabbit maybe.
His shrubs are pretty thick, I was thinking something like beaver , well, no I guess not around here.
I thought rabbits ate soft stuff like leaves. I guess if they're hungry they would eat the bark too. There must have been a whole herd of them because he's got a lot of shrubs and it happened over nite.
I guess I was thinking of something a lot more mysterious for around here.

[ItsMyOpinion]

Being that close to the city, it could also be Warf or Nutria Rats. They get to the size of cats, and if you go downtown Lubbock, at nite, you most likely, will see one run across the street.

[IronfootMcGurk]

Well, didn't want to bring up another possibility, mostly because I didn't want to create a panic, but...

But based on the info you presented, it could have been one of these: http://www.sudftw.com/jackcon.htm

There have been rumors for a few years of these mysterious critters sneaking up the canyons and into the city's greenbelt to browse during hard winters. So far, no human casualties have been reported, if we can believe the newspaper. Though there was that body discovered in the park a couple of years ago....

[surfer]

IMO & Ironfoot, now you both have me worried.
He lives about 8or9 miles out north/northwest. He's got lots of coyotes they've polished off all the small rabbits. Coyotes don't eat bushes.
He gets a mouse once in awhile. Coyotes got all the stray cats too.
I thought all the

Nutria Rats

lived in the swamps, I guess East of town???
The culprit is probably the Jackalope Who knows?
We're going to have to find that "night scope and a web cam" that somebody ripped off of Smcrorey to know for sure!

[IronfootMcGurk]

Sean's nitescope/webcam has been seen on the TTU campus across from the women's dorm.

As for the -- dare I say it aloud -- jackalope, the most worrysome thing is the role of the government in suppressing info about the critter. See for example the missing file at the CIA's website, http://www.cia.com/jackalope.htm . Which feeds speculation that the jackalope is an escaped bioweapon developed at the Ft. Ord bio-tanks. [Or have I been watching too many Resident Evil movies? Man, that Milla Jovovich is fetchin'.]