You know, I’ve seen these marks on some of the beech trees along my driveway now for some time, but it wasn’t until recently that I decided they were from black bears. In the last few years I’ve really gotten to know a lot of the habits of bears since they are often in my forested yard. What I know now is that the young bears are very playful and will often put their front paws up on trees, and if the tree is small, push it over and play with it. But if the tree is larger, they put their paws up and start to climb, or just fool around. It’s easy to see now how making these marks on trees happens, especially on the beech trees with their smooth surface that’s easily marked.
So yes, puzzler 291 was from black bears. Good for those of you who correctly guessed this!
My next puzzler is admittedly, a hard one. But I suspect some of you will still be able to solve it!