Elephant movement across fragmented landscapes is essential for welfare and conservation. Protecting and restoring wildlife corridors reduces human-elephant conflict.
Elephant welfare in the wild is increasingly shaped by the shrinkage of available habitat. Elephants deprived of adequate range show elevated stress hormone levels, increased aggression within groups, and nutritional stress when vegetation in restricted areas is depleted. The welfare dimensions of human-elephant conflict are acute — elephants are killed, maimed, or chronically harassed, and the stress of repeated conflict situations affects individuals and social groups. Corridor projects that restore connectivity between habitat patches allow elephants to follow seasonal food and water availability, reduce compression stress, and decrease the encounters with humans that lead to conflict and death. The welfare of individual elephants and the long-term conservation of populations both depend on maintaining sufficient space.