Sacred Cows and Sympathetic Squirrels: The Importance of Biological Diversity to Human Health
Figure 3
A Bobcat ( Lynx rufus) Drawn to a Scent Lure Placed near an Infrared-Triggered Camera
This species is highly sensitive to forest fragmentation, requiring extensive tracts of habitat to support viable populations. Bobcats and other species of mammalian carnivores are important components of diversity that appear to function both as regulators of pathogen reservoirs such as white-footed mice and as hosts that might deflect tick meals away from more competent reservoirs for zoonotic pathogens.