Refuge manager, who lives there with pet cat and rabbit, said that there were not many mice. We saw very few birds, no cows, no mammal sign. April 27- Bariloche. Morning mild but overcast. Went out to INTA to get weather data. Manana. Talked with Javier Bellati. He is still livng at the Hipodromo, did not acknowledge any ratada. When I remarked on how few raptors I was seeing, he said that there were still lots. When I remarked on the good old days when one saw a half dozen raptors on the phone poles on the airport road, he said that the growth of the pine trees had made the raptors move across the road to the cement poles...but I doubt it. When I said that I no longer see squashed hares on the road, he said that he still sees lots! At INTA we talked with Leonardo Gallo, a forest geneticist who is working on electorphoresis etc of Nothofagus such as pellin, rauli, lenga, etc. He said that experimental plots at Bariloche and near Esquel grow fast, something like 25 cubic meters of wood per year when they are only 13? years old. Also has done a paper on natural hybridization between rauli and pellin. Then we went to Parques and talked with Chehebar and Ramilo. They phoned Sanguinetti in San Martin de los Andes to get information about mice in Lanin park, but nothing definite except they gave us copies of earlier communications such as: Feb 13, 1998- from Intendencia Lanin: "...in months of October and November/97 observged an increase of rodents and also dead ones at the shoreline of the lake, principally colilargos, and trout with mice in stomach in the area of Queni y Sendero Termas." Feb 18- from Intendencia Lanin. "...a notable increase in the number of rodents and flowering of the bamboo in the Lolog area." Feb 26- from Intendencia Lanin; "...an increase in the number of rodents in the past few weeks in the Seccional Hua-Hum and Pucara. Feb 3- from Intendencia Lanin: "...presence of above normal numbers of rodents in Camping Currué Grande and the appearance of dead examples." A follow-up E-mail from Natalie Goodall says that the mice she saw did not have long tails, were scurrying across the road, in the snow, offten eating at other carcasses on the road. She says that Marta Lizzaralde says that in 1996 two species were involved: Abro xantho and Oligoryzomys, mainly the former. Marta wrote a paper about the outbreak and is doing some joint project with the University of Comahue. Her E-mail is [email protected].