Wildlife corridors — habitat connections between fragmented wildlife areas — reduce individual animal welfare harms from fragmentation while supporting population viability. Good corridor design requires welfare as well as ecological thinking.
Wildlife corridor design serves welfare by reducing the chronic stress and acute mortality costs of habitat fragmentation. Animals forced to cross roads and developed areas experience fear and physical danger that corridor infrastructure can substantially reduce. Road mortality — one of the most common causes of wildlife death globally — represents acute welfare harm for millions of individual animals that preventive infrastructure could avoid. Beyond mortality, the stress of navigating fragmented landscapes without safe passage routes creates chronic welfare compromise for animals living in fragmented habitats. The most welfare-sensitive corridor designs consider not just whether animals can physically cross but whether the crossing experience is safe and predictable enough to reduce rather than increase anxiety.