On the very same day that a copy of the newly published “Wildlife Disease and Health in Conservation” reached my desk for review, the top natural history story in the general news was the bleaching of corals off the coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Opening its cover to read through its table of contents, my sense of serendipity was immediately stimulated by discovering that following an introduction by one of the books co-editors, David Jessup, the very first full chapter is Thierry M. Work’s “Coral Reef Ecosystem Health.”