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Abstract Human–wildlife interactions (HWIs) influence the health of humans and wildlife but a unifying framework is needed to understand the causes of HWIs to anticipate health-associated outcomes. In this article, we present a novel conceptual framework that positions wildlife and human health as outcomes of HWIs, human health risks and benefits as motivating factors to manage wildlife and HWIs, and wildlife and environmental health as drivers of future HWIs. We discuss policy implications, including centering wildlife health in preventing harmful HWIs and the wildlife health impacts of management actions to promote or prevent HWIs. We pose guiding questions for advancing health equity that explore who disproportionately experiences health risks and benefits arising from HWIs and who has the capacity to engage with management. Recognizing the integrated relationships between health and HWIs enables scientists and managers to collaboratively mitigate negative HWIs and promote favorable outcomes while protecting the health of people and wildlife. 

Abstract Coloration in wildlife serves numerous biological purposes, including sexual selection signaling, thermoregulation, and camouflage. However, the physical appearance of wildlife also influences the ways in which humans interact with them. Wildlife conservation has largely revolved around humans’ propensity to favor charismatic megafauna, but human perceptions of wildlife species extend beyond conservation measures into our everyday interactions with individual wildlife. Our aesthetic appreciation for different species interplays with culture, lore, and the economic interest they carry. As such, one characteristic that may underpin and interact with social drivers of perception is the coloration of a particular individual. We provide case studies illustrating the dynamism in interactions people have with conspicuously colored wildlife – i.e., individuals that vary from their species-typical coloration. We focus on melanism, leucism, and albinism across four species commonly thought of as pests in the United States: coyotes (Canis latrans), eastern gray squirrels (Sciurus carolinensis), white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus), and black-tailed deer (O. hemionus).