Research overview: epidemics and lion population regulation

Infectious disease can cause sudden, severe declines in lion populations, as shown by canine distemper outbreaks. This overview reviews how a 1990s distemper epidemic killed a large fraction of Serengeti lions, how co-infection with tick-borne Babesia amplified mortality during drought, and how diseases such as feline immunodeficiency virus and bovine tuberculosis circulate in lion populations. It examines the role of domestic dogs and other carnivores as reservoirs, the interaction of disease with nutritional stress, and the implications for small or isolated populations. The synthesis frames disease as an important and sometimes catastrophic regulator of lion numbers that interacts with climate and prey availability. For conservation audiences it explains why monitoring pathogens and managing reservoir species are now integral to safeguarding lions, particularly where populations are confined and cannot easily recover from a crash.