Exposing a secretive bark stripper

When Mike Burgess noticed multiple trees on his farm, De Hoek in the Eastern Cape, were being ringbarked, he was intrigued as to what animal could be responsible as since he had taken possession of the property 20 years earlier, it had never happened before.

- Mike Burgess

Before Europeans settled the Eastern Cape highland district of Barkly East, there were no trees to speak of except maybe the shrub-like ouhout. But during the 20th century, farmers planted numerous exotic trees to help control the impact of wind and erosion and to produce fruit and firewood.

Therefore, today, several exotic tree species can be found on De Hoek, of which only the deciduous false acacia (native to North America) was being stripped of bark in mid-2022.

IDENTIFYING POSSIBLE SUSPECTS 

At first, I thought warthogs could be responsible for the bark-stripping. Recent arrivals to the farm, they are non-endemic to the Eastern Cape, where their numbers are now booming.

They were introduced into the area during the 1970s, based on archaeological evidence that warthogs were once found in the province. Since then, they have bred and spread uncontrollably across the Eastern Cape and beyond.