could be a deer... they are invading many cities/suburbs lately.
We have them, my friend can no longer grow tomatoes!

I have had deer reach up 4-5 ft to get goodies in planters on the dock and porch!

Squirrels do eat buds off trees when desperate, but I used to have primroses in the ground years ago, and they didn't touch them! Now we are overrun by rabbits (our cat helps with this) but the deer are devastating in spring. They don't come later much however in the summer/fall. I have alot of mertensia and that gets eaten down all the time.

Deer leave tell tale bite marks compared to rodents.
Rodents have incisors that make clean cuts. Deer only have teeth on the lower jaw and bite/rub the plant so that a telltale bit of stem is left behind. Like a rip... that is very different from the bite of a rabbit or squirrel.