Wildlife corridors connecting fragmented habitat patches reduce the welfare costs of isolation for individual animals, complementing their well-known conservation benefits.
Wildlife corridors benefit individual animal welfare directly, not just population genetics. Animals that cannot disperse to find mates, territories, or food experience resource stress, elevated cortisol, and higher conflict rates. Road mortality — before corridors are built — kills thousands of individual animals annually on fragmented highways. Animals that successfully cross roads without infrastructure do so at high risk of traumatic injury and death. Corridor infrastructure that allows safe movement — highway underpasses, green bridges, roadside fencing — reduces individual welfare harms while also maintaining genetic diversity. The welfare and conservation arguments are mutually reinforcing.