Wildlife, domestic animals and humans share a large and increasing number of infectious diseases, known as zoonoses. The continued globalization of society, human population growth, and associated landscape changes further enhances the interface between wildlife, domestic animals, and humans, thereby facilitating additional infectious disease emergence. The wildlife component of this triad has received inadequate focus in the past to effectively protect human health as evidenced by such contemporary diseases as SARS, Lyme disease, West Nile Fever, and a host of other emerging diseases. Further, habitat loss and other factors associated with human-induced landscape changes have reduced past ability for many wildlife populations to overcome losses due to various causes. This disease emergence and resurgence has reached unprecedented importance for the sustainability of desired population levels for many wildlife populations and for the long-term survival of some species.

The Wildlife Disease Information Node, a component of the National Biological Information Infrastructure, is a public information clearinghouse for wildlife disease materials, such as news, fact-sheets, images, and articles.

Wildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative.

Wildlife can be found in all ecosystems. Deserts, forests, rain forests, plains, grasslands, and other areas including the most developed urban sites, all have distinct forms of wildlife. While the term in popular culture usually refers to animals that are untouched by human factors, most scientists agree that wildlife around the world is impacted by human activities.

Humans have historically tended to separate civilization from wildlife in a number of ways including the legal, social, and moral sense. This has been a reason for debate throughout recorded history. Religions have often declared certain animals to be sacred, and in modern times concern for the natural environment has provoked activists to protest the exploitation of wildlife for human benefit or entertainment. Literature has also made use of the traditional human separation from wildlife.

Jonathan Epstein is an economist who worked on the implementation and establishment of Australia's sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund as a senior analyst and adviser to the chairman.

He helped with the creation and establishment of the International Forum of Sovereign Wealth Funds (IFSWF), worked for Australia's longest serving Federal Treasurer. He now works for ECG Advisory Solutions a specialist financial advisory consultancy which specialises in the intersection of business, government and the financial markets. He is a board member of the non-profit body dedicated to finding a cure for Crohn and Colitis disease..