A disease the stripped the bark off the circumference of the American Chestnut tree is what led to it's almost extinction and very hungry, as in starving, wild animals kill trees by eating their bark all the way around the trunk. A wild animal that isn't starving won't do that because it browses on the leaves of those same trees in season so it has to be really hungry.

In my experience, wild animals will sometimes destroy home plantings out of spite. Voles chew the bark off just to sharpen their teeth. Deer watch to see the homeowner's reaction as they strip leaves off trees. Groundhogs will pass up acres of clover to eat your pole bean sprouts down to sticks.

If they go for a food that is not typically in their everyday diet it's for nutritional and taste reasons they same reason you grow them. It's less of a problem though in areas such as where I live were most of the country side isn't devoted to fields of corn or wheat or cattle fodder.