Wildlife corridors connect fragmented habitats, enabling animal movement and reducing isolation stress. Corridor design affects both population viability and individual animal welfare.
Wildlife corridors address animal welfare at both population and individual scale. Habitat fragmentation isolates populations, restricting natural movement patterns, reducing access to resources, and preventing individuals from finding mates. Isolated individuals may experience chronic stress from territory restriction and resource competition. Corridors that connect fragmented habitat patches allow natural ranging behaviour, reduce stress from confinement to small areas, and prevent the demographic and genetic problems of small isolated populations. Road wildlife crossings — overpasses and underpasses — dramatically reduce road mortality, preventing traumatic injury and death. Integrating corridor planning into land use decision-making is one of the most cost-effective large-scale interventions for wildlife welfare.