Independent scientific reviews

and official documents on 1080

Beech masts are associated with increases in mice (only rats to a lesser extent)

date	authors	source	name	quote
1990	Murphy, E., Pickard, C.	pp 99-113. In King, C.M. (Ed.). The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 600 pp.	House Mouse	“Explosive population increases in mice can be set off when a higher than usual number of young mice survive an unfavourable period and then breed early in the following season; this pattern is observed in New Zealand beech forests.”
2005	Ruscoe, W., Murphy, E.	pp 204-221. In King, C.M. (Ed.). The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press, Melbourne. 610 pp.	House Mouse	“Spectacular increases in numbers of mice in autumn and winter are driven by a sudden increase in food associated with a heavy beech seedfall…mouse populations increase through autumn, leading to peak numbers that may be recorded in any of the subsequent three seasons.”
2005	Ruscoe, W., Murphy, E.	pp 204-221. In King, C.M. (Ed.). The Handbook of New Zealand Mammals (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press, Melbourne. 610 pp.	House Mouse	“Post-seedfall increases in mouse reproduction, juvenile recruitment, and, ultimately, population density, are reliably predictable
2013	Shapira, I., Walker, E., Brunton, D.H. & Raubenheimer, D.	NZ Journal of Ecology 37(1): 33-40	Responses to direct versus indirect cues of predation and competition in naïve invasive mice: implications for management	“Growing evidence shows that invasive mice can damage native vegetation (Ruscoe et al. 2005) and reduce invertebrate (Tann et al. 1991) and vertebrate (Jones et al. 2003) populations. Mouse populations in New Zealand can irrupt both when food sources become abundant, e.g. after mast years in South Island beech forests (Murphy 1992), and when rat and mustelid populations are intensively controlled (Caut et al. 2007; Goldwater 2007; Ruscoe et al. 2011).”
2004	King, C.M., White, P.C.L.	NZ J Ecol. 28(2): 251-258	Decline in capture rate of stoats at high mouse densities in New Zealand nothofagus forests	“Long-term monitoring in southern beech (Nothofagus spp.) forests in New Zealand has documented a recurring sequence of events, set off by periodic heavy seedfalls in autumn (March-June) mice…and (if present) ship rats (Rattus rattus)…breed over winter and are captured in very high numbers in spring (September-November). Nine or ten months after the seedfall, the cohort of young stoats (Mustela erminea) born in summer (December-January) is also much larger than usual.”
1983	King, C.M.	Journal of Animal Ecology (1983), 52: 141-166	The relationships between beech (Nothofagus sp.) seedfall and populations of mice (Mus musculus), and the demographic and dietary responses of stoats (Mustela erminea), in three New Zealand Forests	“There was a significant relationship between seedfall and population of mice in all forests studied. Good seedfalls were followed by increases in density of mice and changes in population structure not seen in years when the seedfall failed. Predictability of these changes decreased with increasing diversity of forest composition.”
2006	Efford, M.G., Fitzgerald, B.M., Karl, B.J. & Berben, P.H.	NZ Journal of Zoology 33:273-297	Population dynamics of the ship rat Rattus rattus L. in the Orongorongo Valley, New Zealand	“the usual scarcity of rats in beech forests, the small size of beech seeds, and the lack of information on rat diet in beech forests, leaves considerable uncertainty regarding rat-beech interactions.”