What's the most efficient way for a living creature to tunnel through wood?

The main creature in question is an intelligent species that stands from 3' to 4' tall on average. They are heavy-set and primarily bipedal, but able to move comfortably on all fours at the same speed as when upright. Don't think muscular like a typical fantasy dwarf, think a cylindrical torso with short limbs and a large head like a mole. Though they do use technology in wood-boring now, I want them to have a natural method they evolved with, and that is the subject of the question.

Possible methods of natural wood-boring I have considered include:

• Using claws like how a mole digs in dirt,
• A chisel-like structure in their head like a woodpecker,
• Chewing like a wood-boring insect,
• And chemically removing the wood with some naturally produced enzyme.

Which of those methods, or combination of those methods, would be most efficient at creating tunnels in wood within which this species can move freely? I'm also open to suggestions of methods of wood-boring that I didn't mention.

It's worth note that while this species is my primary concern in the issue, the world in question does have a number of other wood-boring species of similar or slightly larger size, but the others aren't sapient.

Update: Magical solutions are acceptable, and are probably among the advancements in wood-boring tech this race has made, but for answers to this questions, it must be something like an innate magical or supernatural ability. Anything that has to be taught or studied counts as tech for the purposes of this question.

posted almost 7 years ago

Cowrie‭

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