As cities expand, wildlife increasingly moves through a landscape shaped by roads, buildings, and fragmented patches of habitat. Maintaining connections between natural areas can help animals move through these landscapes, but connectivity can also influence how often wildlife encounters other animals.
Climate change adds another layer of complexity by altering animal movements, seasonal conditions, and the survival of disease-causing organisms. These changes may be especially important in cities, where wildlife, people, and domestic animals live in close proximity. Understanding how urbanization, connectivity, and climate interact can help conservation planners anticipate emerging challenges for urban wildlife.
Gelmi-Candusso, T.A., Murray, M.H., Rodriguez, P., et al. 2026. Wildlife disease occurrence increases with changes to urban density, habitat connectivity and climate. Nature Cities 3:802-813. DOI: 10.1038/s44284-026-00501-4
New research examined these relationships using sarcoptic mange, a contagious skin disease caused by mites, in coyotes across cities in the U.S. and Canada. Researchers analyzed coyote photographs collected by camera traps in 10 cities through the Urban Wildlife Information Network, with a total effort of over 16,000 camera weeks for the study and almost 8,500 coyote images.
They combined these observations with information on urban development, human population density, habitat connectivity, and climate to examine where coyotes and mange were more likely to occur. They also mapped areas that could provide movement corridors, and used future projections of urban growth and climate to estimate how mange occurrence might change by 2050.
The results showed that at the local scale, mange was more frequently observed at sites with greater urban intensity and near connectivity corridors. At the broader scale, however, cities with higher human population density and fewer connectivity corridors had greater mange occurrence.
This suggests that the relationship between connectivity and disease is not straightforward. Corridors can provide important routes for wildlife movement, but greater connectivity may also increase opportunities for infected and uninfected animals to encounter one another.
The effects of connectivity also depended on urban conditions and climate. By 2050, mange occurrence was projected to increase across cities, with the largest increases expected at northern latitudes. Warmer winters may allow mites to survive longer outside their hosts while also changing how coyotes use urban landscapes and overlap with one another. When combined with continued urban growth, these changes could alter disease patterns in ways that would not be apparent from considering climate or connectivity alone.
The findings highlight the need to consider wildlife health when planning connected urban landscapes. Connectivity remains important for allowing wildlife to move through fragmented environments, but its effects can vary when disease spread is a consideration. As climate change reshapes both wildlife movement and disease transmission, maintaining and managing connected habitat may become increasingly important for anticipating and mitigating these interactions.
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