My grandfather thought that there were pine martens living on the thickly wooded banks of the Boyne at Oldbridge but I have never seen one of these shy creatures.
In the British Isles they mostly live in Scotland, Wales and Ireland although they have recently been re-introduced to the New Forest. On the continent they are known as stone martens in Greece and beech martens in Switzerland and there is an abundant population. Isn’t that nice?
No it jolly well isn’t according to my Greek correspondent. They have developed an addiction to the cables under car bonnets. Apparently some makes of car have cables treated with grease derived from seals to make the cabling supple and the martens love to chew them. Fords, Renaults, Volkswagens and Skodas are their favourites and then they won’t start or have damage to the brakes.
There’s no problem if the car is kept in a garage but in Greece most cars are parked outside. Ways to keep the martens at bay are to park the car on a mesh metal mat. They don’t like walking on the mesh I’m told. Another idea is to urinate around the car before retiring to bed.
It is a real proble. In Switzerland AXA pay out some 40 million Swiss Francs annnually to repair the damage caused by martens.