Jaguars require continuous corridors of habitat across Central and South America to maintain viable populations and individual welfare - scientific research guides corridor design.
Individual jaguars living in fragmented landscapes face constant welfare stressors not experienced by animals in intact habitats. Navigating agricultural land and roads to reach other habitat patches exposes jaguars to persecution, snares, and vehicle strikes. Road kills are often prolonged deaths - an animal struck by a vehicle may survive hours or days before dying. Jaguars that establish territories in marginal habitat near ranches live in a chronic state of conflict, with attempted livestock kills bringing lethal retaliation. Camera trap studies reveal individual jaguars repeatedly attempting the same dangerous road crossings, suggesting they lack safer options.