What is digging up my lawn?

I have a lovely spread of moss in my shady front lawn and it is a great substitute for grass, which will not grow due to the shade. The only problem is that every few weeks my lovely moss gets these little dug up areas . . . maybe 2 to 3 inches across. It always happens at night. I have always thought it might be squirrels or chipmunks. But lately I've been wondering if it might be deer tracks. We do have deer in my neighborhood. I would include a photo but I don't see anywhere on this page where it says "Browse" or "Download Photo" or anything like that. Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing my dug-up moss and what I might do about it? Thanks for any thoughts on the subject.

Are there holes under the dug up spots? Is something tunneling up from under? Or moving the moss and digging down from the top?

Deer tracks ought to be pretty obvious. Are you actually seeing footprints of deer or droppings? Or are the 'dug up' spots the right spacing for a deer to have sort of stubbed her toes and dug up the moss that way?

Something that small does sound the right size for squirrels burying nuts. I am not sure about the habits of flying squirrels, but I think they are nocturnal.

Some birds might dig out something that small, too, if they thought there was a bug in there.

What nocturnal animals are in your area?

Sounds like armadillo, could be raccoon.

We also have a problem with squirrels here in UK, they dig small holes in the turf like they were just checking to see IF they had buried nuts, they are not nocturnal BUT are out and about at first light along with the dawn bird songs, other things that dig could be rabbits, ect, that's holes going downward.

If you had small mounds of earth beside the holes, then you would be looking for things that tunnel upwards like moles, you wont see these, just the mess they make and they usually send up several small mounds as they tunnel all over the place, my Dad used to send us out to gather the sifted soil the moles had left on the grass as it was already finely textured just by the way the moles worked the soil, this was used for seed growing and potted bulbs you wanted to grow to bring indoors, so every pest has a good turn within it's habits ha, ha, ha.
Hope you are lucky finding your pest, maybe ask the neighbours to see what they come up with as whatever it is, it wont be just your lawn that is being attacked.
best regards. WeeNel.

My first guess would be an armadillo looking for 'groceries'.

Umgowa
To post a photo use the choose a file button, then select the file your photo is in, then select your photo. A picture would help, sounds like squirrels to me. My armadoillos make much more damage than little two or three inch shallow holes.
The squirrels are always digging in my yard for acorns, I have lots of oak trees. Do you have oaks or anything like that the squirrels would be digging for?

Thanks for your helpful comments. I walked past the problem area this morning and it looked great. Then this evening I walked by and it was dug up. So now I know that whatever is doing this is not necessarily nocturnal like I originally thought. I also noticed that some of the holes went down into a cone-like point, down an inch or so into the dirt beneath the dug-up moss. What makes a hole like that? A deer would have to have a strange looking hoof to make a hole like that. I'm thinking it either has to be squirrels or chipmunks. Do you agree? Do you know any good ways of scaring off or repelling squirrels or chipmunks? Maybe an owl perched on a nearby tree? Any thoughts?

Some folks perch a plastic hawk type bird on a post to scare away such things as Squirrels / chipmunks, but, these also frighten away smaller birds etc that feed on our greenfly etc,
I would place my bet on an animal with small claws to dig such small holes in your garden and I still really think it is squirrels, these are not Nocturnal nor are the Chipmunks. Is there any way you could be more watchful in day time, I watch out the window from time to time and every occasion there are a few squirrels about, once you have them there is no way of getting rid of them, even worse for us, we feed the birds and this is very attractive to both these creatures so I have learned to live with them, I chase them away but they soon return.
Good luck, WeeNel.

If you try a fake predator (owl, hawk, snake...) move it often. I use an owl on the end of a piece of PVC (plastic irrigation pipe). The pipe is stuck up through the tree, and moves whenever the wind moves the tree. This adds a life-like realism to the owl. This keeps the birds away from my Asian pears.
A client used a blow-up snake to keep swallows from nesting right over her front door. She tied the snake there loosely so the wind would move it.

I am not sure what would make a shallow hole, like a 1" deep inverted cone. IME anything that digs at all should dig up more, in search of bugs or roots.

Racoons in my area will dig up a much larger area, and make a mess doing it. It is not uncommon to come out in the morning to several areas 6" to a foot long, and 3" to 6" wide. Irregular patches. Not very deep, just enough to dig up the grass and find bugs under it.
Gophers and moles will make much larger holes. Underground runways. Not little spots like that.
I have seen the mess squirrels can make out of a pot of flowers, and that is larger than described. Maybe they cannot dig so well in hard ground?

I think it is something a lot smaller.

Dogs and cats will dig up moles in their tunnels.

"Dogs and cats will dig up moles in their tunnels."

Boy, you should have seen my Doberman pretend she was a Dachshund! She would trail a mole in its hole, but only her nose would fit underground!