Biomedical Evaluation Disturbed landscapes which give rise to habitat fragmentation, reduction or isolation can also induce a host of biomedical problems in wild populations. Isolation can lead to increased inbreeding which can result in a drop in genetic diversity. Low genetic diversity can cause members of a population to experience lowered resistance to diseases, lowered reproductive potential, and physiologic and sometimes fatal impairments. Close proximity to urbanization can increase exposure to pollutants as well as diseases transmissible from domestic animals. Reduction in food resources associated with increased competition in small natural areas can also lead to a general decline in health.
Small populations are also more susceptible to epidemics.
These factors can render a population nonviable and lead to local extinction. Except for apes and monkeys, cats are genetically the closest animals to humans. So close is this relationship, that one merely needs to rotate portions of particular feline chromosomes end over end to get virtually identical gene matches with the human counterparts. For example, how an individual responds to an infection by these viruses is, in part, dependent on the individual's genome - the sequence of DNA nucleotides found in his or her chromosomes. Different species of cats possess different sequences and some species that contract FIV will not develop AIDS and die.