Ring Rooting Around Tree Canopy Circumference - Why?

[Double Naught Spy]

I have a property where the landowner said the hogs were rooting up his winter wheat. I checked the field and found a few small spots of rooting, but then found that some of his randomly scattered oak trees were rooted in a ring around the circumference of the tree, pretty much matching the overall shape of the tree's canopy. So if a tree has a big, circular canopy, there was a big, wide circle of rooting on the ground. If the canopy was offset to one side, the ring rooting was offset of one side. What I want to know, is why is the hog rooting in this pattern? What is it after? These are oaks and there are acorns under them, but not just as nice canopy matching circles under the trees, but all over under the trees, as you would expect. I found 4 trees with these rings. I found a couple of other trees with the random patchy rooting that I would normally expect. Several had not been hit.

This appears to have been done by a single hog as there was a single set of tracks leading from tree to tree.

 

[H&Hhunter]

Crop circles explained!

 

[BigBore44]

I’m betting that they are digging for grubs that fall from the tree and burrow.

 

[Flintknapper]

Lacking a leaf bed....the drip line represents the most fertile soil and probably the easiest to root in (no large roots). I would expect a greater number of subterranean forage (grubs, earthworms, insects) to be present in the best soil conditions (in this case at the drip line). In a more natural setting (not a field but forested) it is natural for Oaks to have a 'leaf bed' from the drip line all the way to the base of the tree. This provides an equal amount of decaying matter, moisture retention, etc...so would be equally attractive to insects/other. I don't see rooting 'circles' in those situations.

 

[<*(((><]

Lacking a leaf bed....the drip line represents the most fertile soil and probably the easiest to root in (no large roots). I would expect a greater number of subterranean forage (grubs, earthworms, insects) to be present in the best soil conditions (in this case at the drip line). In a more natural setting (not a field but forested) it is natural for Oaks to have a 'leaf bed' from the drip line all the way to the base of the tree. This provides an equal amount of decaying matter, moisture retention, etc...so would be equally attractive to insects/other. I don't see rooting 'circles' in those situations.

What he said, seems most logical.

 

[der Teufel]

 

[Highland Lofts]

The tree roots on average are the same size as the canopy. Maybe they are rooting up the tender roots of the trees.

 

[Flintknapper]

And me with YOURS...!

 

[Patocazador]

Acorns dropping is my guess.

 

[wombat13]

Rooting for truffles? Oak trees are the best trees for truffles and pigs are considered the best truffle hunters. I've heard that truffle foragers have switched to dogs. They may find fewer truffles, but yield is better since the dogs don't eat any.

 

[jmorris]

May have something to do with the recent frosts we have had here and dew not falling under trees like it does in the field.

That said, I’ll have to take a photo of what they do at our place around telephone poles. I was told they are rubbing the Creosote off of them to help with bugs. Your rings are much larger thus the theory above.

Of course if they are dropping acorns, that’s better than corn from a feeder right now and that is certainly the root of the problem (pun intended

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Acorns dropping is my guess .

Give the man a Kewpie Doll!

The acorns come off the trees, and some are not eaten by deer or rodents, and so set into the ground, covered over by grass and fallen leaves. (Might be some squirrel storage too.) Over time the moisture in the ground removes the tannins in the acorns, and they become quite sweet. Hogs like acorns; hog love sweet acorns. (This is also why squirrels bury acorns. Makes them sweeter) The hogs are raiding for the sweet acorns.

LD

 

[jmorris]

A photo of what I was talking about above. You can also see the mud they rubbed off of themselves. They only seem to do it when they are new, why it doesn’t look very fresh.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

Give the man a Kewpie Doll!

The acorns come off the trees, and some are not eaten by deer or rodents, and so set into the ground, covered over by grass and fallen leaves. (Might be some squirrel storage too.) Over time the moisture in the ground removes the tannins in the acorns, and they become quite sweet. Hogs like acorns; hog love sweet acorns. (This is also why squirrels bury acorns. Makes them sweeter) The hogs are raiding for the sweet acorns.

LD

An interesting answer. Squirrels also hide acorns in very dry locations. They will also bury other nuts and even fruits that don't need to be leached. So I don't buy into them burying acorns to make them sweeter.

As for the hogs going after sweeter leached acorns, very interesting consideration. Not buying into it, yet, because this is such a unique event. Apparently, nobody else that I have solicited online has seen this either.

 

[buck460XVR]

Lacking a leaf bed....the drip line represents the most fertile soil and probably the easiest to root in (no large roots). I would expect a greater number of subterranean forage (grubs, earthworms, insects) to be present in the best soil conditions (in this case at the drip line).

^^^This.

 

[Flintknapper]

edit

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Not buying into it, yet, because this is such a unique event. Apparently, nobody else that I have solicited online has seen this either.

You might be right.
So next year collect a five-gallon bucket of acorns from those trees. Take the bucket to adjacent trees which are not oaks. Put some of the acorns under the trees, and mash about 1/3 of the bucket's worth of acorns into the ground around the test trees at a distance from the trunk equal to the spread of the branches. If the hogs don't root under the tree for the buried acorns, you're likely right.

LD

 

[buck460XVR]

Give the man a Kewpie Doll!

The acorns come off the trees, and some are not eaten by deer or rodents, and so set into the ground, covered over by grass and fallen leaves. (Might be some squirrel storage too.) Over time the moisture in the ground removes the tannins in the acorns, and they become quite sweet. Hogs like acorns; hog love sweet acorns. (This is also why squirrels bury acorns. Makes them sweeter) The hogs are raiding for the sweet acorns.

LD

So next year collect a five-gallon bucket of acorns from those trees. Take the bucket to adjacent trees which are not oaks. Put some of the acorns under the trees, and mash about 1/3 of the bucket's worth of acorns into the ground around the test trees at a distance from the trunk equal to the spread of the branches. If the hogs don't root under the tree for the buried acorns, you're likely right.

LD

While that is an interesting theory and may be correct, the scenario here, IMHO, does not seem to match. First off, doesn't seem like the acorns have been on the ground long enough for any tannin to be leached out. The trees still having all their leaves They have not been "mashed" into the ground by anything and it's readily apparent, not covered by leaves. Secondly, the rooting of only in the drip line. Unlike rain and dew that create the drip line, acorns do not fall just there. They are randomly growing thru-out the canopy and thus will also fall randomly. They also bounce off leaves and branches as well as bouncing when they hit the ground, thus spreading them even more randomly. The rooting of only in the drip line is the key. Without anything to "mash them in the ground, it's hard to imagine that the hogs would have to "root" for them instead of just eating them off the ground in a random pattern. Hard to believe that squirrels would cache them in the drip line pattern. The only leaching I could visualize in this scenario and time frame would be the leaching of insecticide from under the drip line. This is why folks fertilize tress in the drip line of trees because it is where the fertilizer is leached into the soil the best. The leaching of the insecticide and the increase of moisture in the drip line could mean more grubs. Some oak acorns germinate the spring after they fall. Some germinate immediately in the fall after they drop from the tree. Could the moisture in the drip line and the species of tree mean those acorns in the drip line have germinated(sprouted) and are more desirable to the hogs? Notice I said could in these scenarios....I ain't bettin' on anything.

This would be an interesting thing to ask a forester or wildlife biologist. These are the types of things that draw me to the outdoors, the mysteries that Ma Nature gives us. Years ago, I used to walk a logging road to a bow stand deep in a large tract of public land. This road would take me past oak stands of various species. Also impressed me how under some trees, the acorns were like walking on marbles, while under another, the ground was bare of not only acorns, but of any leaf cover because the deer had blown/scraped all of them away in search of those particular acorns. Once the season went on, the other acorns would disappear also, but it was readily apparent that when acorns were plentiful, the deer and other nut eaters went for the best ones first. This led me to being able to identify the different sub-species of oak trees so I would know which ones to sit by, once acorns started to fall.

I have friends who collect acorns in the fall and make acorn flour. They claim that freezing the acorns first makes them sweeter. I dunno, never tried it.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

I think sweet is a euphemism. You might make them less bitter, but you don't make them more sweet, not without adding sugars.
https://static1.squarespace.com/sta...+Do+Sweet+Acorns+Still+Need+To+Be+Leached.pdf