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Funk, S.M.; Cleaveland, S.; Gompper, M.E.; Laurenson, K.
Diseases and environmental toxins
1998 Conference Proceeding
Understanding the complexity of disease in wild carnivore populations in their environment and its management has emerged as a central issue in carnivore conservation. Here, we provide a synthesis of factors relating to disease and environmental toxins and the issues raised by their possible control. Carnivores are hosts to a diverse range of pathogens which have the potential for far-ranging effects on host populations dynamics within complex communities. Disease affects carnivore populations at many levels: from providing the final 'nail in the coffin' in small endangered populations to barely detectable effects on host condition and reproduction. Within communities, carnivore population dynamics and spatial distribution can also be affected by disease of prey and its management. The dynamics of these diseases are shaped by complex interactions, such as density-dependent versus density-independent processes, compensatory versus additive mortality or community structure.
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