Den trees are those large, standing trees that are used by animals for nesting, roosting, cover, food supply and other critical functions. Den trees are live trees that contain holes or hollows large enough to shelter wildlife. Woodpeckers are credited with creating many nesting cavities in trees. Species which create these holes are called primary excavators; species such as owls, wood ducks and raccoons which use cavities created by other animals are called secondary excavators.
Other mammals which typically use den trees are gray and fox squirrels, flying squirrels, opossums and black bears. Birds which use tree dens include owls, woodpeckers, bluebirds and swallows. Estimates suggest there are about 32 cavity nesting bird species that use den trees in Tennessee. In Missouri, research has found that 89 species of wildlife use den trees and another 66 species use snags for feeding and perching. The number of den trees needed in an area is dependent on surrounding conditions and landowner objectives. If, for example, the primary objective is timber production, one or two den trees per acre for wildlife may be sufficient.
Hollow logs provide refuge or denning opportunities to many wildlife species including shrews, mice, chipmunks, groundhogs, bears, skunks, opossums and some furbearers. During strong wind storms, trees are often uprooted. The resulting root-caps and disturbed soil also provide den sites for groundhogs, foxes, raccoons and others.
Many sportsmen’s clubs have often thought the best way to increase raccoon populations was to save the raccoon dens from being needlessly destroyed during the cutting of timber. This idea was brought about by seeing the normal habitat of raccoons being stripped of all suitable den trees during timber cutting operations and by seeing that the practice of the stocking of pen raised or wild trapped raccoons appeared to have no noticeable effect upon the raccoon population as a whole. In a few cases, hunters had asked timber cutters to “save the old gum” and they found that raccoons still “treed” in these isolated dens.
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