In the first image you see a young specimen of Ulmus crassifolia, also known as the cedar elm tree. Visible on this tree are places where the bark has been stripped away down to the white wood underneath. In some parts of Texas, you can see activity like this on small branches and twigs due to the activity of rats. Obviously, something larger has been busy here.

In this image, another young tree has been nearly stripped of bark along its trunk.

Closer inspection of the trunk shows places where large teeth have been at work and have scored the trunk. Porcupines range into western Texas where they feed on various kinds of herbaceous plants during the year. They will also eat the inner bark of some types of trees. From the looks of the trees in these photos, they enjoy young cedar elm bark considerably.

In this last image, you can see where the porcupine was able to feed close to the ground and avoid having to climb for his dinner. Porcupines are largely nocturnal, but they can be seen about in the daytime. I have yet to encounter a live one of these large rodents and I am looking forward to seeing one peeling tree bark one of these days.

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I used to live in the Fort Worth area and our home had two mature live oaks in the front yard and 4 mature pecan trees in the back. Consequently, we had lots of fox squirrels, Sciurus niger, on the property and in the neighborhood.

Fox squirrels are active, interesting creatures and always fun to photograph. The first image shows one of our neighborhood residents on my front porch on a hot September afternoon.

The second image shows her spread-eagle on the terrazzo surface trying to soak up some cool. This location is shaded most of the day by the huge live oak trees.

The third image shows my furry friend up in the live oak tree after she noticed me with my camera. Fox squirrels are playful animals and generally very confident about their abilities to avoid predators. Unless they have been made fearful of humans, you can usually count on getting pretty close to squirrels living in the neighborhood. It makes it fairly simple to make pretty photos.

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