Animal Scratchpost – Tree Used by Wildlife to Scratch Itchy Furs

Animal Scratchpost - Tree Used by Wildlife to Scratch Itchy Furs

Animal Scratchpost - Tree Used by Wildlife to Scratch Itchy Furs

In the woods where I live, I have several locations used by the animals where they aggregate in order to scratch their itchy furs. They tend to use coniferous trees for that purpose, quite expectedly because unlike most deciduous trees, the conifers have rough barks.

I call the trees the wildlife rub themselves against “scratchposts“. Trees that are extensively used as scratchposts have their barks rubbed off and even the raw wood under the bark is often scratched a few levels deep.

There are three scratchposts standing close to one another shown in this video – one of them shows only slight use, but the other two are noticeably narrower in the areas where the animals rub themselves against the trees. The ongoing wear and tear shrunk the trees’ waistline, resulting in the flow of resin that makes it look as if the tree was crying.

These trees definitely take a beating from the animals, but that’s how life goes in the woods.

The Video

I filmed the video after leaving the injured badger hole. I had to crawl over the downed conifer which blocks the path between the injured badger’s sett and the scratchpost. It’s the same conifer where the injured badger hole series started.

I briefly filmed Woodpecker Decker while I was sitting on the conifer, although due to the cloudy skies and the bird’s location, he’s not very well seen.

Trail Cam Footage

The compilation of videos captured by my trail camera set up at the main scratchpost is at the end of the video. It features a red fox (Vulpes Vulpes) who swung by to scratch his nose, a roe deer (Capreolus Capreolus) who was just passing by but didn’t feel itchy so just used the location for feeding, not scratching, and a family of wild boars (Sus Scrofa), who are responsible for most damage to the tree. The boars really go at it with their tough hides and rub themselves against the tree like there’s no tomorrow.

Because wild boars are the most frequent as well as the most fervent users of the scratchpost, I sometime wonder if for them it’s about more than scratching an itch. I don’t doubt they get bothered by pesky mites, but no other animal scratches themselves quite as aggressively as boars. Could it also be a ritual for them? Maybe a way to also clean themselves off mud?

BTW yes, the boars did poke the camera several times with their snouts and that one adult boar also smacked it with his tail. The young one felt like something was not right about the camera and kept giving it a weird eye, eventually coming to bump into it and give it a real close-up eye.

Guitar Solo

For the trail camera compilation I used my own guitar solo which was both composed and performed by me. It’s an original piece of instrumental music in E-minor played on an electric guitar. It’s part of a longer guitar solo, but I shrunk the compilation because sometimes the trailcam videos look similar and could get boring. It was performed and recorded live before a live audience in 1996. There is no studio recording of this music.

YouTube video:

Odysee video:

3Speak video:

8 thoughts on “Animal Scratchpost – Tree Used by Wildlife to Scratch Itchy Furs”

  1. Hello Mark. I tried getting in touch with you when I saw the new site a few days ago but had some trouble posting. This is completely unrelated but I just wanted to say thank you for supplying us ungrateful bastards with an endless supply of gore. I dunno how you kept it up for as long as you did to be honest. And thank you for providing me with a place to hang with other sick fucks and never banning me even though I was probably the biggest retard in the comments. I’m happy to see you doing well for yourself. Much love from Australia.

    1. Hello Jack, great to hear from you again. How’s the Aus-land these day? Been hearing frightening things from down under since the plandemic started. Not that the EU is any better…

      1. We have some the toughest covid restrictions here if not the toughest. Just recently we had a lockdown that lasted about 3 months but now there’s talk of another lockdown coming around soon. There was one incident where police went to an animal shelter and shot a bunch of shelter dogs to prevent people from travelling to adopt them. I’m not even fuckin joking. Also things are about to get really uncomfortable for the unvaccinated like myself. In Western Australia, anyone who isn’t double vaxed is pretty much not allowed to go anywhere with a few exceptions but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of the country follows. I’m just enjoying what little freedom I have left in NSW before anymore restrictions come rolling through.

        Not much has changed with me. I’ve since got a beautiful German Shepherd who I took walking twice a day but that might soon change since I had an accident at work and injured both of my knees. I still take her out walking but now walking takes a great deal of effort. I’m just waiting to hear from the doctor to see if there’s any permanent damage.

        That guitar solo was a banger by the way and I’m not just saying that. You would’ve made a fine addition to any metal band.

        1. Thanks for the compliment. I’m now old and rusty. Should have pursued musical career sooner. But I ended up running BG 😀

          You know what the difference is between a vaccinated and an unvaccinated person? Neither is fully vaccinated. Here in the EU things are grim, but by the sound of it, Australia has us beat in unadulterated tyranny. What a world…

          You got both your knees effed up? Man… That sucks. I happen to know what I’m talking about because my joints are wearing out, though in my case it’s not related to injury. Just a lifetime of overuse without taking care of them. Unfortunately because there is no blood supply to the cartilages, the chances of regeneration are near non existent. But I’m trying my luck with various natural remedies and light exercises that move the synovial fluid about the joint for lubrication and some, albeit limited, nutrition.

          I hope you make good recovery and regain proper function of your knees.

          1. Thanks. But maybe “accident” wasn’t the right word. More like continuously moving heavy loads up a flight of stairs for about a month. I thought it was just soreness so I kept on going but I soon realised it wasn’t just soreness. Something feels very wrong. I now wear knee braces on both my legs which make it a little easier to walk and go up stairs. If you have trouble with your knees then some knee braces wouldn’t be a bad idea for those walks around the woods. I just got these off the shelf at a chemist while waiting for the doctor to get back to me with my MRI results. Just don’t wear them all the time if you decide to get them or the joints can weaken over time.

          2. That is kind of an issue I ran into – I did in fact buy a knee brace. The one I bought uses a brand name WINMAX. It’s Chinese so it probably doesn’t mean much, but while it wasn’t the priciest on the market, it also wasn’t the cheapest so I thought the golden middle ground should suffice. I also specifically got one with a specialty patella pad, because my knee pain was right behind the patella (knee cap) and the diagnosis I got for the knee pain was Chondromalacia Patellae – worn-out cartilage under the knee cap.

            But fact of a matter is – after I bought the braces, only then did I find out that the use of them could contribute to the weakening of the joint over time (exactly what you said), and somehow that didn’t sit well with me, so the brace has been sitting pretty in the closet since bought. Still in its original packaging.

            Meanwhile, I have purchased a massage gun and started doing myofascial massages on myself (as taught by Tom Myers plus my own experimentations that proved useful) and I also bought a FIR bulb from a pet store of all places (they sell true far infrared bulbs for use in aquariums), put it in a table lamp and have used it on my joints. Along with acupressure, chi qong, stretching and lubricating the joints with light repetitive movement I have been able to reduce the severity of the issue, but I wish I had started addressing it before it got bad, as I feel like I’m just chasing my own tail now that I let the cartilage wear out and am trying to regenerate it as an aging man. That’s one of those moments where you truly want to use the “if I knew then what I know now” phrase…

            So far I’m surgery and brace free, and my condition got better nonetheless, but I’m far from fixed. Then of course – hip pain and lower back pain had to add to it. Never a dull day when you start getting old. Like Hemingway said – slowly, slowly and then all at once.

          3. Well shit, at least you got a diagnosis. My GP just referred me to see a knee specialist since he couldn’t figure out what was wrong even after an X ray and MRI scan. Thing is, when I called them up to make the appointment, I was told I had to be double vaccinated to enter… lol. That’s how it goes. The massage gun isn’t a bad idea though. I’ll look into that. I might go see what these Thai massage parlours are all about too. Never actually been to one before. And if they ask for my vaccination status, I’m gonna inject something up there ass and it’s not a fucking vaccine…

            Peace bro. You take care of yourself. You did all us SOBs a great service.

    2. Man, I’m sorry to hear that the both of you are going through such BS. I live in the US in North Carolina. Nothing like that is even remotely happening here. some people “demand” that you wear your mask but the governor of NC put in his executive order that if you have any excuse not to wear it, they cannot require proof of ailment. Other than that we are still free. I can go do whatever I need to do throughout the day without any problems.

      Is anyone doing anything to fight back against the tyrannical CUCKS?

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