Clouded leopard conservation requires maintaining forest corridor connectivity across Southeast Asian landscapes fragmented by agriculture, roads, and human settlements.
Clouded leopard welfare in fragmented landscapes is compromised by the increased encounters with humans and roads that fragmentation forces. Animals attempting to cross plantation and agricultural matrices face vehicle collision, hunting, and snaring risk that is absent in intact forest. Corridor maintenance that enables movement between forest patches without traversing human-dominated areas reduces these welfare risks while maintaining the genetic connectivity essential for long-term population health. The secretive nature of clouded leopards means that welfare monitoring in corridors relies on camera trapping rather than direct observation, making investment in camera trap networks a welfare research priority.