Jaguars require vast connected territories across Latin America, and corridor conservation programs are essential to prevent the isolation of populations that would make them genetically unviable.
Jaguars attempting to cross fragmented landscapes face vehicle strikes, rancher conflict, and energetic costs from navigating human-dominated areas. Male jaguars dispersing to establish new territories face the highest mortality risk. Individual jaguars killed in retaliatory poisoning after livestock depredation are welfare tragedies that also fragment the genetic landscape connecting populations. Community programs compensating ranchers for jaguar depredation and training dogs to protect livestock non-lethally reduce conflict that drives retaliatory killing.