Ask-a-Dave's-Gardener: Puzzling damage to bark - Florida tree, 1 by slywlf

slywlf wrote:
My friend, who, like me lives in zone 9 in Florida, planted a small tree 10 or so years ago. She no longer remembers what kind, and it is over 15\' tall now, and until recently was quite healthy.
Suddenly this spring we started noticing holes in the bark, in irregular patches. Though there has definitely been woodpecker activity in the area - most notably on a large dead branch on a Chinaberry tree nearby, this doesn\'t look like woodpecker damage to me. We are not in an active deer area, and the damage seems confined to areas a deer would have difficulty reaching anyway. Too high for rabbits (about 4 - 5\' up).
Can anyone suggest what is causing this damage, so we can protect the tree?