What eats young rhubarb leaves?

.... I know! I seem to specialise in random weird questions!

but I’ve just got back to Belgium after 3 weeks looking after my mum in the Welsh Marches (4weekends, 4 floods, but I managed to “break out”!), and had a wander around the garden.

The rhubarb plant had got 4-5 young leaves up when I left. I was thinking I might even be pulling my first rhubarb soon! (The plant struggles in our hot, fast-draining soil). But when I looked at it this morning, the leaves and stems had been chewed off nearly down to the crown, but with no obvious chew/teeth marks on the stubs of the stems.

What could it be? We have a couple of pairs of red squirrels that frequent the garden on a regular basis, roe deer in the field opposite, so less than 100 metres, but I’ve never seen them in the garden. (Fencing is between 1 and 1.5 metres high). There are also hares, rabbits, and almost certainly rats in the vicinity....

The only other signs of disturbances are the boards that form the sides of the compost heap have been knocked into the heap (Compost area is relatively sheltered, so unlikely to be from any of the recent storms). An apple tree that died in last year’s long summer drought has had the bark stripped at around 50cm off the ground, up to around 80cm.... I’m suspecting deer, but the red squirrels can also strip bark off dead branches - I’ve witnessed this on many occasions.

The only other possibly relevant fact is that there have been one or two gundogs patrolling the garden for the last 8 years, but for the last 2 weeks our dog has been helping me keep a grasp on my sanity in Hereford....

I’ve put a flower pot that’s lost its base around the rhubarb, to act as a 15cm shield around it, and put the sides of the compost bays back.

 

I've had rabbits eat mine down to the crowns in late winter.

 

Since I’ve put the old bottomless pot around the crown, there has been no more damage, and a new leaf is emerging....

 

...and here’s some photographic proof!