This Browning camera was mounted on a fence post in the field. I've had cameras for many years, none ever touched by animals. First picture shows another cam without marks.

In my part of the woods, black bears do all kind of damage to our cameras and game feeders including biting out large chunks.

I am not so sure that animal did not walk on 2 legs. I see no teeth marks indicating it was a bear, it ,looks more like someone hit it with a club or something.

I will say it was rodent of some sort, be it a squirrel or porcupine or likes
and my bet is, some how when you last checked the camera you left some sort of scent behind from what ever you ate or handled, or a BUG maybe squeezed into the flash area and they chewed it up trying to get to it, or what ever the scent was on the camera
NOT a bear % sure on this, a bear would crunch it up and leave large teeth marks(I have had 5-6 cam's eaten by bears, got a lot of cool pic's of the inside of there mouths too LOL
and its why I learned to NEVER touch food or bait before handling a camera'
or wear rubber gloves to handle them CLEAN rubber gloves too!
and I also use a lot of bear boxes, more so to deter thief than bears!
also keep in mind, when your installing battery's and SD cards
if you have food scents on hands doing that, you can make your camera BAIT for things, animals have incredible noses you know!

I have MANY bird feeders chewed on like your can from squirrels, and they have eaten holes in many of my plastic 55 gallon drums too, that SED to have food products in, washed a few dozen times too, and they still smell scent of what WAS In them YRS ago!

Thaniks guys. I was thinking of maybe a raccoon. I never thought about changing the SD card and having a food scent on my hands but could be! I have the top of camera even with the top of post, not on top of it so a critter could stand there and munch! Teeth marks on the bottom of cam too. Also I can say I like the Browning cameras, started with Bushnell, then Cuddebacks, will stay with the Brownings.

Might want to invest in a metal camera box. They're cheap compared to the cost of a new camera. Here's one that fits many different cameras, including Browning.

https://www.trailcampro.com/collecti...security-cases

I vote squirrel. If not for pure boredom, they gnaw on objects to shorten their teeth. I would hope they are intelligent enough to realize the camera box is not food - odor or no odor.

That would be a rodent for sure. Squirrel or mouse probably. Probably squirrel but those are definitely the teeth marks of a rodent.

I vote squirrel too, any other larger animal may destroy the camera directly and the bite mark seems consistent with the teeth of a squirrel.

And squirrels are very clever, this is the squirrel captured by my WingHome trail camera, please have a look.