successful pregnancies coinciding with
beech mast).
There is an acorn crop but little or no
beech mast. Sloes are equally scarce.
Years with high vole densities and increased numbers of registered human hantavirus infections were preceded by years of intense coverage with
beech mast (nuts of the European beech tree [Fagus sylvatica]) (10).
However, this is the most herbivorous of the documented species and is, therefore, likely less reliant on
beech mast than the others.
But the trees are not from the random fall of
beech mast or acorn, for these are the Nile Clumps, planted not long after Nelson's death at Trafalgar in 1805 to commemorate the exact formation of Nelson's fleet and that of his French enemies at the the Battle of the Nile, where Nelson won his great victory in 1798.