Well, leave it to me to wow everyone, but I produced just about the best story and video this week ever! Well, maybe that's giving me too much credit, but I've gotten a lot of positive feedback from my work.

So, anyways, my editor clued me in a couple of weeks ago in on a story at Mineral King, this valley in Sequoia National Park. Basically, one of the other reporters went up there and saw that people had wrapped chicken wire around their cars to protect the engines from these animals called marmots, which are basically large alpine squirrels. I had to get more info, so on Tuesday I drove up to the park with the camera and this is what I saw:

Mineral King marmots cause problems for cars
By Nick McClellan
Visalia Times-Delta

If you choose to hike or camp in Mineral King this summer, the animal most likely to cause damage — and leave you shaking your fist — is not a bear.

Large alpine squirrels known as marmots love to munch on engine wires and hoses. They also drink copious amounts of ethylene glycol, a chemical found in many kinds of automotive antifreeze.

... Mitchell Hauptman, a park ranger stationed at the Mineral King ranger station, said three vehicles have been towed this season because marmot damage rendered them inoperative. Other visitors got off easier, including one who left the following note at the ranger station: "Doesn't look serious, but it took a while to scare him out of the engine compartment."

... No one knows for sure why marmots find car parts and fluids so appealing, said Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks Wildlife Ecologist Harold Werner.

The fluids also don't seem to harm the marmots as they would housepets.

"They seem to become ethylene glycol junkies," Werner said.

... Visitors who fail to protect their vehicles from marmots may find themselves taking one or more home in the engine cavity, Hauptman said.

"I've heard stories of marmots making their way down to L.A.," he said. "But they're fine. People give us calls, 'We have one of your marmots.' "

His usual response?

"It's their marmot now," Hauptman said. "Marmots don't FedEx well."

My editor told me she liked the video and the story like three times today. I always get so excited when I do something right. Future stories for me include: following some guy who turns cooking oil into biofuel, filming a wild mixed martial arts match and snapping pictures of some tots competing in a sort of miniature Olympics.

But, before you see any of that, you have to see the marmot video! It's awesome. And I'm telling you, if you haven't crossed paths with a marmot, you haven't met the most interesting and mischievous creature this side of the Sierra.