Research overview: disease ecology of urban-adapted felids

Felids living at the edges of cities, such as bobcats and mountain lions in California, face a distinctive disease landscape shaped by human activity. This overview surveys the disease ecology of urban-adapted cats, including mange epizootics driven by rodenticide exposure, contact with domestic-cat pathogens, vehicle-related stress and fragmentation, and altered prey and parasite dynamics. It examines how urbanization concentrates certain threats while introducing novel ones, and how studying urban felids reveals the indirect ways human environments affect wildlife health. The synthesis connects urban ecology to felid disease epidemiology. It aims to help readers understand that cities are not disease-free refuges but complex environments where toxicants, domestic animals and habitat change combine to create unique health challenges for the wild cats that increasingly live alongside people.