In article ,
Sacha wrote:
On 2013-04-28 08:57:54 +0100, Dave West said:

Outside our garden fence is a Viburnam Tinus shrub about six feet high.

It has recently had a 7cm wide strip of bark bark neatly removed all
the way around the stem about six centimetres from the ground.

I'm guessing that it will now die and nothing can be done to save it?

In the ground where its planted there are squirrels and foxes running
around. Are these the most likely culprits?

'Barking' a tree or shrub is a good way of killing it, so there's every
chance it will die, unfortunately. If it was done that neatly I think
the culprit was probably human.

Maybe. However, I have read that some animals do that - especially
beavers. Now, beavers are implausible, not least because that
would be a new species of micro-beaver :-) But we do have some
species that are known to eat bark, and small ones include several
of the voles and possibly even wood mice. And, of course, squirrels.

My understanding is that Viburnam Tinus is a natural shrub and suckers
under most circumstances, which will almost certainly mean that the
ring-barked stem will die but the plant will not.


Regards,
Nick Maclaren.