Anyone know what creature is doing this??

[Bayleaf]

Sangliers?

I have seen football pitches dug up by the sangliers in France, and this looks very similar.

I initially thought sanglier too. As for how they get into the garden - perhaps they've heard the saying "pigs might fly"!

[Lori]

Thanks everyone.

I'm going to ask the guys who do the heavy garden work. They are coming today. They were born and raised here. Hopefully they'll have an idea.

Not that it matters much. Obviously, there is nothing we can do about whatever it is. We're just curious what is visiting us. Husband said he was going to look into a night camera(s) to install. Serial shopper.

[Veem]

We have had boar damage more than I care to say and to me, this doesn't look significantly bad. When the boar 'rearrange' our land they leave huge turves on top of the grass with massive holes where they've hoiked them out with their snouts. They restyle our muck heap in the autumn too, searching for worms.

[Lori]

Agree Veem. Though it really does look like evidence of Sanglier snoot digging. There are several parts of the garden like this. I just see no way of them entering the property and no evidence of any droppings and nothing seems to have been eaten (garden patch, millions of grapes, tree bark, fruit remaining on trees, etc.).

If it was deer, it is hard for me to figure out why there are no deer droppings. Previous experience with visiting deer is that they ALWAYS leave clear evidence they've passed by.

[Hotrodder]

I have two acres with the same problems. A little vole activity and massive invasion of moles elsewhere. I've spent hundreds trying different methods of getting rid of them but have now given up. The humps and holes have made it necessary to fit a suspension seat to the mower. Cutting at the slowest speed and the sprung seat keep me from being thrown off by the bouncy motion. We also have the boar-like digging as mentioned above (they are known in the area). At one time we had a mad idea of planting different types of trees to re-wild the field but some critter methodically destroyed all of them by nibbling the lower branches bare and then snapping them off. Out of several dozen different saplings planted only one, a cypress leylandii, has survived. A sadly distorted specimen.
The money would have been better spent on wine or car parts.

[Wilbro]

We have times when our garden suffers similar damage. A trail camera revealed both foxes and badgers, even visiting on the same night and digging up areas of garden.

[Lori]

As close as we are to you Wilbro, you must be right !! Gardening guys said it has to be a smaller animal that is able to more easily get onto the property. Fox and badger types would have no problem getting under certain areas of the fencing.

We have seen what I would consider to be fox droppings in the garden. I'll have to try to figure out how to identify badger droppings..

The gardening guys could not give a definite answer. Perhaps rabbits/hare (which we see often) they said, but there is just way too much destruction for me to believe that.

They did confirm it could not be Sanglier as there is no way for them to enter the property. Unlikely to be deer for the same reason I noted earlier - no droppings anywhere and all fruits remain untouched.

[Polarengineer]

I look into a bookI have called “who shat that” although this site might help
https://www.discoverwildlife.com/how-to ... -droppings

[Lori]

Ah, so I can see what badger poo looks like. Interesting site.

Thanks.

[Spectrum]

Ah, so I can see what badger poo looks like. Interesting site.

Thanks.

A good book to buy is "Tracks and Signs" of the animals and birds of Britain and Europe, by Lars-Henrik Olsen. Gives you a lot of information about identifying the evidence.