A buddy and I walked pretty far in behind a closed gate today looking for deer. On one of the roads we stumbled upon this:



At first I thought it may have been a bear but when we looked closer at it the claw marks were deep and made with surgical precision. like razor blades had been drug down the tree trunk. On the opposite side of the tree there were claw marks where I'm thinking the animal used one claw to hold on while it ravaged the tree with the other. I'm thinking it was a cougar. What do you guys say?