Broken Trees

[Lawrence Leavell]

Jan,

Many reports have been submitted describing broken trees. Large and small trees are broken off at some height above the ground. What is the significance of this behavior?
Does it mark a family territory?
Is the size and height of the break important?
What about the direction in which the tree is broken?

[Jan]

Jan,

Many reports have been submitted describing broken trees. Large and small trees are broken off at some height above the ground. What is the significance of this behavior?
Does it mark a family territory?
Is the size and height of the break important?
What about the direction in which the tree is broken?

All right Lawrence you ask for it, but I'm not going into any great detail here just the basics. Here it is for those that wish to know.

The common tree snap is done by adult males that are in a dispute over hunting grounds for their families. They simply have a contest of breaking large saplings with their hands. The male that can break the biggest tree at the tallest height, wins the hunting grounds for his family, and the other family lets them have the grounds for hunting, hands down so to speak. A simple friendly game like our arm wrestling contest. These trees will be snapped off at random height and random positions.

For juvenile males to take and establish their territory, they will do so by pulling up young saplings and placing them up in live older trees. This goes on until the winner of this contest has pulled up a sapling some other young male can not beat by pulling up a bigger sapling. Again instead of doing actual battle with one another or having a physical tussle they settle matters in a positive way that is not harmful to anyone involved. Something like tossing a coin and calling heads or tail and the winner takes all undisputed.

Directional twist of trees are what is actual territorial markers. These have their own significance accordingly.

Yours,
Jan