I was in a club north of Natchez and we had a big male black bear on our property and we had several trees that were scratched up just like that

I used to hunt Pearl River WMA years ago and saw similar spots on Cypress trees fairly often. Sometimes the patches were up kind of high and really got me wondering. I finally figured it out one morning when I saw a tree rat peeling the bark off in strips to make its nest. Not trying to say that's what did this to this tree, but that's what I saw. I'm not ruling out the possibility of it being a bear, my .02.

http://youtu.be/4w-GOleG1es

light pole in my yard

Bears usually stand as high on their hind legs as they can and leave bite marks to mark their territory, and i have seen squirels do that, but u never no. If it is a bear they will leave plenty more signs around.

Squatchhhh!! J/K I have no idea.

It was Obama...marking his territory.

Might be a ROO-PER-ROO AKA Bigfoot

I think on a soft tree like cyress, you'd be able to see evident claw marks in the wood if from a bear.

I have a cypress on my place that gets hit each year by squirrels,,, for what ever the reason, it seems any tree rat in the area likes to come take bark off that one tree, and usually in the same area of the tree.

A lot of trees are like that from where drift wood and heavy objects (refrigerators,freezers) floated and rubbed against the trees from the high water during the hurricane . Although it could be an animal , I can't really see scratch marks from an animal .

Soft tree like a cypress????? I always thought cypress was a pretty hard/dense wood???

...in the 70's we were in a club between Angie and Sandy Hook and seen a scrape w/claw marks and woodpecker holes 12 FEET ABOVE THE GROUND...and there was NO other marks below it...somehow after that the stands got vacant long before dark ???...being a off and on dog club the drivers switched to whistles,large caliber pistols and six foot hiking poles w/a large grab hook to pull you out of a hole...cheers

Quote - I always thought cypress was a pretty hard/dense wood???

Both the bark and wood is softer than most species. The cyprees bark can be peeled right off in long strands like shown in the picture above. Much unlike Pine, Oak and Gum. Overall the wood is much softer than anything else in the swamp. It mills much easier too, I wish all wood I cut on my sawmill was easy to cut as cypress.

i guess you learn something every day. thanks for the lesson