Hose eating marmots!?!?

Anyone ever hear of marmots eating radiator hoses for the salt? A book on backpacking California suggests putting chicken-wire under your car engine. This suggestion was made for the Whitney area...hmmm

(I am seeing more marmots this year in Yosemite than years before which is why I posted on this fourm instead of General Discussion)

Watt chew spect from a rodent?

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Seriously...

Never ever heard of any issue in Yosemite.
Mineral King is Sequoia NP is a different story:

http://www.nps.gov/seki/planyourvisit/marmots.htm

Recent hike out of Isberg TH s of Yosemite I saw someone who
had their car wrapped in chick-on wire. It was the only car out of
about 20 in the lot with such a setup. I asked at the
ranger station about it but unfortunately the lady at the station
was pretty useless.
She said "o.. they are out for 8 days... you were only out for 3 days
so you were ok.. "
WHAT! Like the stupid Marmots know how long a car is sitting there?
please...
My conclusion... the person with the chick-on wire was super paranoid.

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The only place I've seen people put fences around their vehicles is Mineral King.

Absolutely. The worst place for this is the trailhead parking lot at Mineral King. There is a family of marmots there that specializes in radiator hoses, brake hoses, and wiring harnesses. The last time I was up there was some years ago. The guy next to me had to be towed all the way out on that endless entry road. My car's wiring was damaged, but the engine still worked and I was able to get home.

Chicken wire is rather flimsy stuff. I've heard that the Mineral King critters just rip it off. What I wanted to do was to use my battery-powered electric fence charger, but a ranger told me that this was absolutely forbidden. I don't know why...it wouldn't kill them.

Recently there have been some motion-detector ultrasonic screamers on the market. I don't know if they would work, but they would at least be legal.

Not just Marmots, Ground squirrels and other rodents have been known to eat hoses/wiring.