Variations in the macroparasite community were summarised by a PCA of individual parasite variables on the correlation matrix [18] . This was based on data for the common macroparasite species at Cotgrave Forest [18] : Skrjabinotaenia lobata, Brachylaemus recurvum, Calodium hepaticum, Syphacia nigeriana, Heligmosomoides polygyrus, Ixodes ricinus, laelapid mites and Polyplax serrata. As the PCA of macroparasite variables produced a significant (P,0.001) first component with coefficients of the same sign for most species, scores for this component (PC1 P ) were taken as an overall indicator of macroparasite infection.