Human diseases:Insights obtained from wildlife research

Abstract

Current wildlife research in India is mainly drivenby conservation priorities. Often, studies that donot have a conservation implication are treatedas a sinful luxury. What is less appreciated is thatbasic wildlife research can yield many importantinsights into the fundamental principles of life,behaviour, society and health. Health is an ecological phenomenon: when you consider infectiousdisease as an interaction between two or morespecies, it becomes intuitive to consider it an ecological process. However, current opinion suggeststhat even non-infectious diseases, such as type 2diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular diseasecan be better understood as ecological processes.Increasingly, many principles of evolutionaryphysiology and animal behavior are providing aradically different and insightful view of the disease process.