im figuring its about five feet off the ground. i do not know what kind of animals you have around there but to name a few would be deer, goats, cows, anything that is at least as tall as the tree.
we made a tree in our front yard deer resistance by putting up four inch yard fencing five feet tall.
took t post drove into ground and rapped the fencing around it.

I've seen deer eat a lot of things around here but I've never seen them eat the leaves and not the stems. They normally snip off about 6-8 inches, stem and all. No deer sign around the tree either. It may be deer, but it looks a lot more like some sort of insect to me.

Thanks

Deer. Insects aren't that thorough.

It looks like eaten by caterpillars, but then I don't think so when 5 trees had the same fate. You're right, deer damage looks different. I had a small mountain ash tree tender leaf stripped by birds.

A couple of years ago I had a doe who was bedding in my garden area which has a couple of apple trees. She would eat the leaves off the tree but not touch the stems or branches.

I agree, a bit unusual for deer damage, but it did happen once to me this way...

I'm pretty sure our deer leave the petioles when they eat our apple leaves when I prune off a branch and leave it in the orchard.