Research overview: climate change and shifting disease dynamics in wild felids

Climate change is reshaping the distribution and intensity of wildlife disease, with implications for felids through effects on vectors, reservoirs and host stress. This overview surveys how warming and altered rainfall influence tick and flea ranges, the timing and severity of disease events, and the kind of climate-disease interactions exemplified by the drought-amplified distemper epidemic in Serengeti lions. It examines projections for vector-borne diseases, the compounding of stress and infection during extreme events, and the uncertainties involved. The synthesis connects climate science to felid disease epidemiology. It aims to help readers understand that disease threats to wild cats are not static but are being remodeled by a changing climate, which can shift where pathogens occur and turn previously tolerated infections into lethal ones under environmental stress.