Wildlife Corridors
- NOTOC**
Wildlife Corridors: Connectivity, Conservation, and Landscape Ecology
Wildlife corridors are areas of habitat that connect otherwise separated populations, ecosystems, or protected areas. They allow animals and other organisms to move between habitat patches for migration, dispersal, feeding, reproduction, seasonal movements, and adaptation to environmental change. The research and conservation projects surveyed here show that connectivity has become a central component of modern biodiversity conservation, particularly as roads, agriculture, urban growth, fencing, infrastructure, and climate change divide natural landscapes.
Corridors range from broad landscape-scale connections extending hundreds or thousands of kilometers to narrow riparian strips, forest linkages, road underpasses, highway overpasses, canopy bridges, and restored patches of vegetation. Their effectiveness depends not simply on whether a connection appears on a map, but on whether animals actually use it and whether surrounding land remains permeable enough for movement.
The Science of Habitat Connectivity
Landscape ecology increasingly treats habitat patches as parts of larger connected systems rather than isolated conservation units. Studies use GPS tracking, camera traps, species-distribution models, circuit theory, remote sensing, resistance modeling, wildlife observations, and other techniques to identify habitat cores, movement routes, bottlenecks, and areas where connectivity is threatened.
Research involving elephants, giraffes, tigers, bears, wolves, leopards, ungulates, birds, amphibians, primates, and other species demonstrates that different animals often require different pathways. A corridor suitable for one species may provide little benefit to another because species vary in habitat preferences, dispersal ability, tolerance of people, sensitivity to roads, and willingness to cross disturbed landscapes.
Multispecies planning therefore attempts to identify networks that accommodate a range of ecological requirements rather than designing corridors around a single flagship species. Studies also emphasize the importance of validating computer-generated corridors with field observations, camera traps, telemetry, roadkill records, and actual animal movements.
Do Wildlife Corridors Work?
Evidence summarized in the material generally supports the value of habitat connectivity. Experimental and observational research has found that corridors can increase movement between habitat patches, maintain population connections, support plant and animal diversity, and improve the effectiveness of protected-area networks.
Long-term elephant studies, multispecies movement analyses, and experiments involving connected habitat patches indicate that strategically placed corridors can maintain ecological processes that become difficult or impossible in isolated habitat fragments. Connected habitat may support gene flow, recolonization, seasonal migration, access to food and water, and movement between breeding populations.
At the same time, structural connectivity does not automatically equal functional connectivity. A strip of apparently suitable habitat may fail as a corridor if animals avoid it because of roads, human activity, artificial light, noise, fencing, settlements, or unsuitable surrounding land. Effective corridor planning therefore requires testing whether wildlife actually travels through proposed connections.
Connectivity can also have ecological costs. Greater movement may facilitate disease transmission, invasive species, predators, or other unwanted ecological processes. Corridor planning consequently requires weighing the benefits of connection against potential risks rather than assuming that greater connectivity is always beneficial.
Roads, Highways, and Wildlife Crossings
Transportation infrastructure is one of the most widely documented causes of habitat fragmentation. Roads can divide populations, disrupt traditional migration routes, increase wildlife mortality, and create behavioral barriers even when animals are physically capable of crossing them.
Wildlife overpasses, underpasses, culverts, tunnels, fencing systems, and canopy bridges are increasingly used to reconnect habitats divided by roads. Examples from the United States, Brazil, Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and other countries show animals using purpose-built crossing structures ranging from large mammal overpasses to rope bridges for arboreal primates.
Properly designed crossings can serve two objectives simultaneously: maintaining wildlife movement and reducing wildlife-vehicle collisions. Fencing is often used to guide animals toward safe crossing points rather than allowing them to enter traffic.
Crossing design must nevertheless reflect the needs of particular species. Amphibians, large mammals, carnivores, arboreal primates, and other animals respond differently to tunnel dimensions, vegetation, lighting, noise, human activity, fencing, and surrounding habitat. Research also indicates that artificial lighting can reduce use of some underpasses.
Habitat Fragmentation and the Surrounding Landscape
Corridors cannot be understood independently of the landscape surrounding them. Ecologists often refer to the habitat between protected patches as the "matrix." Its quality can strongly influence whether wildlife moves successfully between habitat areas.
A landscape containing trees, natural vegetation, low-intensity agriculture, community conservancies, or other relatively wildlife-friendly land uses may allow animals to disperse even outside formally protected corridors. Intensively developed landscapes can create far greater resistance.
Research on fragmentation also shows that biodiversity loss can result not only from the total amount of habitat removed but from the way remaining habitat is divided into isolated pieces. Fragmentation changes edge conditions, animal behavior, ecological interactions, and even below-ground communities.
Connectivity can also vary seasonally. Habitat that functions as an important movement route during one season may be much less useful during another because food, water, vegetation, disturbance, and animal behavior change over time.
Climate Change and Ecological Connectivity
Climate change is making connectivity increasingly important because species may need to shift their ranges as temperatures, rainfall, vegetation, and extreme-weather patterns change. Corridors can provide pathways through which populations reach newly suitable habitat.
Research suggests that warming may itself weaken existing climate connectivity, meaning routes that work under current conditions may not remain effective in the future. Static corridor models based only on today's landscapes can therefore underestimate future isolation.
Connected landscapes may also help wildlife respond to drought, heat, fires, and other climatic extremes. Coastal conservation presents an additional challenge because wetlands and other ecosystems may need to migrate inland as sea levels rise.
These findings support planning conservation networks as dynamic systems capable of accommodating future movement rather than simply preserving current species distributions.
Protected Areas and Larger Conservation Networks
National parks and wildlife reserves remain important habitat cores, but the material repeatedly shows that protected areas alone are often insufficient. Wildlife regularly travels beyond park boundaries, and critical connections frequently cross private property, Indigenous lands, community conservancies, farms, working landscapes, and political borders.
This is particularly important for wide-ranging animals such as elephants, tigers, large carnivores, bears, and migratory ungulates. Protecting isolated reserves without maintaining connections between them can leave populations genetically and ecologically isolated.
Large-scale initiatives increasingly seek to create networks of protected and conserved lands rather than disconnected conservation islands. International conservation policy has likewise given greater recognition to ecological corridors and transboundary connectivity.
Wildlife Corridors in Africa
Africa provides some of the clearest examples of the need for landscape-scale connectivity. Elephant, lion, giraffe, zebra, wildebeest, rhino, and other populations frequently move across areas extending far beyond individual national parks.
Research in Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia, Uganda, and the broader Kavango-Zambezi region shows that many important wildlife routes cross community or privately managed land. Agricultural expansion, settlement, roads, railways, fencing, and other development can progressively narrow or close these routes.
Kenya's wildlife corridors illustrate both the challenges and opportunities. The southern dispersal areas around Nairobi National Park, the Amboseli landscape, Laikipia conservancies, and northern rangelands depend heavily on land used by pastoralists and local communities. Maintaining connectivity therefore requires conservation approaches that address livelihoods, livestock, land ownership, human-wildlife conflict, and development pressures alongside wildlife protection.
Community conservancies and locally managed landscapes can play an especially important role by maintaining relatively open land between formal protected areas.
Wildlife Corridors in Asia
Asian corridor conservation frequently focuses on tigers, elephants, snow leopards, orangutans, langurs, and other species living in rapidly developing landscapes.
India's recovering tiger populations make connections between reserves increasingly important because dispersing animals require routes through forests and human-dominated landscapes. Elephant corridors in India, Thailand, Malaysia, China, and Sri Lanka similarly illustrate the tension between wildlife movement and expanding agriculture, roads, settlements, and infrastructure.
Canopy bridges and ropeways are also being used in parts of Southeast and South Asia to reconnect forest canopies for arboreal wildlife. Examples involving orangutans and langurs demonstrate how relatively small structures can restore specific forms of connectivity where roads have severed treetop habitat.
Central Asian initiatives extend the corridor concept to enormous mountain landscapes, including ecological connections intended to support snow leopards and other species moving among protected areas.
Wildlife Corridors in the Americas
Corridor projects throughout the Americas range from continental-scale landscape initiatives to highly localized wildlife crossings.
The Rocky Mountains, Florida Wildlife Corridor, Mesoamerican Biological Corridor, Lower Rio Grande Valley, Andes-Amazon region, and other landscapes demonstrate attempts to preserve large ecological connections across combinations of protected areas and working lands.
Jaguar conservation illustrates the international nature of connectivity. Populations in Central and South America depend on forest connections extending through multiple countries, while fragmentation can isolate animals within shrinking habitat blocks.
Smaller species also benefit from connectivity projects. Salamander tunnels, canopy bridges, restored riparian habitat, forest corridors, and reforestation projects show that corridor conservation is not limited to large mammals.
Australia, Europe, and International Connectivity
Australia has developed community and government initiatives aimed at reconnecting fragmented habitat for koalas and other native wildlife. Tree planting, protected forest connections, and highway crossings demonstrate several approaches to rebuilding landscape connectivity.
European projects examine ecological corridors across heavily developed landscapes, including connections between protected areas and movement routes through the Alps and other regions.
International conservation organizations increasingly recognize that wildlife movement frequently crosses administrative and national boundaries. Transboundary conservation therefore requires coordination among governments, landowners, Indigenous peoples, conservation organizations, and local communities.
Connectivity Across Ecosystems
Ecological connectivity extends beyond terrestrial wildlife corridors. Riparian vegetation can connect habitats along rivers while simultaneously protecting aquatic ecosystems. Connections between rivers and surrounding terrestrial environments sustain birds, insects, plants, and other organisms.
Experimental studies also show that corridors can influence relationships among plants, pollinators, herbivores, and predators. Connectivity therefore affects ecological interactions as well as the movement of individual species.
Coastal ecosystems present another form of connectivity challenge because sea-level rise may force habitats to move inland. Maintaining undeveloped migration space can allow wetlands and associated species to shift as coastlines change.
Community Conservation and Human-Wildlife Coexistence
Many of the most important wildlife corridors exist on land where people live, farm, graze livestock, build infrastructure, or operate businesses. Corridor conservation is therefore as much a social and governance problem as a biological one.
Studies and case examples show that landowner acceptance can determine whether a theoretically suitable corridor functions in practice. Communities may bear substantial costs when elephants, carnivores, or other animals travel through farms and settlements.
Successful corridor projects increasingly involve local landowners, Indigenous peoples, pastoralists, conservation organizations, government agencies, and businesses. Conservation easements, community conservancies, restoration programs, land-use agreements, compensation programs, and coexistence measures can help maintain wildlife movement without requiring every corridor to become a conventional protected area.
Human-wildlife conflict remains a major challenge. Technologies such as monitoring systems and thermal drones, combined with community-based management, are being explored to reduce dangerous encounters while keeping traditional migration routes open.
Planning, Policy, and Restoration
Effective corridor conservation requires incorporating connectivity into decisions before development permanently closes movement routes. Land-use planning, transportation design, protected-area expansion, infrastructure policy, and local zoning can all influence whether ecological connections survive.
Mapping can identify bottlenecks where relatively small areas of development could sever much larger networks. Protecting or restoring such locations can produce disproportionately large conservation benefits.
Restoration can rebuild connections that have already been degraded. Forest planting, riparian restoration, fence modification, grassland restoration, and rehabilitation of disturbed land can transform fragmented habitat into functional movement networks.
Policy is increasingly moving toward treating connectivity as an explicit conservation objective rather than an incidental benefit of protected areas. Guidance from governments and international conservation organizations reflects growing recognition that preserving individual habitat patches without preserving connections among them may be insufficient for long-term biodiversity conservation.
Challenges and Future Directions
Wildlife corridor conservation faces several recurring difficulties. Development pressures can increase rapidly, while ecological networks often span many jurisdictions and landowners. A corridor mapped by researchers may never become protected, and a legally designated corridor may not function if habitat quality deteriorates.
Climate change further complicates planning by shifting the location of suitable habitats. Models must increasingly account for future land use, changing climates, seasonal movements, species-specific behavior, and uncertainty.
Better field validation is also needed. Camera traps, telemetry, genetic studies, roadkill data, citizen science, and long-term monitoring can determine whether proposed corridors actually support movement and population connectivity.
Future conservation strategies are therefore likely to combine protected areas, working landscapes, restoration, wildlife crossings, community conservation, ecological modeling, and adaptive management rather than relying on a single type of corridor.
Conclusion
The material presents wildlife corridors as a fundamental response to one of the central problems of modern conservation: the fragmentation of ecosystems into increasingly isolated pieces. Protected areas remain essential, but their long-term ecological value often depends on whether wildlife can move between them.
Scientific studies and conservation projects show that well-designed corridors can support migration, dispersal, genetic exchange, climate adaptation, biodiversity, and access to seasonal habitat while wildlife crossings can simultaneously reduce animal mortality and improve human safety. Their success, however, depends on habitat quality, surrounding land use, species behavior, infrastructure design, community participation, and long-term protection.
The broader lesson is that biodiversity conservation increasingly requires thinking beyond individual parks and reserves. Maintaining connected landscapes means treating protected areas, community lands, private property, transportation systems, restored habitats, rivers, forests, farms, and cities as parts of larger ecological networks. As development and climate change continue to reshape the planet, preserving and restoring those connections is likely to become an increasingly important part of protecting wildlife and functioning ecosystems.
- TOC**
Wildlife Corridor Science, Connectivity, and Landscape Ecology
SpeciesLink: An Ecological Connectivity Prediction Model for Designing Wildlife Corridor Networks in Fragmented Landscapes
| Priya Vij, Ashu Nayak and Monica Verma | Animal Environment Journal | August 8, 2026
Presents a modeling framework intended to predict ecological connections and guide the design of corridor networks across fragmented landscapes.
Road Infrastructure Drives Habitat Fragmentation and Connectivity Loss for Large Mammals in Central Iranian Protected Area
| Maryam Mostajeran et al. | Scientific Reports | July 14, 2026
Examines how roads fragment habitat for goitered gazelles, wild goats, and grey wolves and identifies priority corridors where crossings and traffic controls could restore connectivity.
Multispecies Transboundary Landscape Connectivity in the KAZA TFCA
| L. L. Sousa et al. | Scientific Reports | July 6, 2026
Maps habitat cores and movement corridors for seven large mammal species across the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, showing that major connections depend heavily on land outside formal protected areas.
A Multi-Species Framework for Corridor Evaluation for Species With Different Dispersal Capacities
| Stephanie S. Romanach et al. | U.S. Geological Survey | June 25, 2026
Applies a spatial movement framework to fox squirrels, Florida black bears, white-tailed deer, and bobcats to test how well the Florida Wildlife Corridor serves species with different dispersal abilities.
Matrix Resistance and the Acceptance of Wildlife: Corridor Connectivity and Human–Tapir Interactions
| Sofía Pastor-Parajeles, Ronit Amit, Silvio Marchini and Esteban Brenes-Mora | Oryx | June 24, 2026
Examines Costa Rica's Tenorio–Miravalles Biological Corridor and finds that successful tapir connectivity depends not only on suitable habitat but also on whether private landowners accept wildlife moving across their properties.
Reticulated Giraffe Habitat Use and Connectivity Across Conservancies in Laikipia County, Kenya
| Research authors | Landscape Ecology | June 15, 2026
Maps seasonal habitat use and movement pathways for reticulated giraffes across community and private conservancies in Kenya's Laikipia landscape.
Static Connectivity Models Underestimate Ecological Risk Under Long-Term Climate and Land-Use Change
| Bo Xu, Tong Dang and Xuefei Wu | Communications Earth & Environment | June 6, 2026
Shows that corridor assessments based on present-day landscapes can underestimate future isolation when climate and land-use change alter both habitat and movement resistance.
Warming Erodes Climate Connectivity for Terrestrial Vertebrates
| Zhaoning Wu et al. | Nature Climate Change | May 18, 2026
Models how rising temperatures could weaken climate corridors that allow terrestrial vertebrates to track suitable environmental conditions as the planet warms.
Assessing the Effectiveness of Riparian Buffers in Protecting Biodiversity: A Meta-Analysis
| Renato B. Dala-Corte, Xingli Giam and David S. Wilcove | Nature Communications | March 19, 2026
Synthesizes studies of riparian buffers, which can function as linear habitat connections while protecting terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity.
Mapping Human Modification and Conservation Priorities Across Critical Linkages of the Florida Wildlife Corridor
| Bohnett, Hoctor, O'Brien et al. | Discover Conservation | February 28, 2026
Evaluates human modification within Florida Wildlife Corridor linkages and identifies places where conservation or restoration could prevent important connections from being severed.
Rethinking Road Mitigation Priorities Through Detection-Informed Interpretation of Roadkill Data and Road Crossability
| Research authors | Biological Conservation | January 2026
Combines roadkill records and circuit-theory measures of road crossability for 15 mammal species to identify where connectivity preservation and crossing mitigation should be prioritized.
Assessing the Role of Wildlife Ecological Corridors in Restoring Functional Connectivity of Road-Fragmented Habitats
| Yuhang Luo et al. | Ecological Engineering | 2026
Uses movement simulations to evaluate a wildlife bridge in Shenzhen, China, finding that the corridor restored a substantial portion of connectivity lost when a road fragmented leopard cat habitat.
Impacts of Land Use and Land Cover Change on Habitat Connectivity: A Case Study of the Igando Igawa Wildlife Corridor, Southern Tanzania
| Research authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | 2026
Tracks three decades of landscape change in Tanzania and documents agricultural expansion, habitat loss, and shifting boundaries within an important wildlife corridor.
Application of Species Distribution Models and Corridor Mapping for Conservation of Brown Bears in Iran
| Research authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2026
Uses species-distribution modeling and landscape connectivity analysis to identify habitat cores and movement corridors important to Iran's brown bear population.
Consider the Costs of Connectivity When Creating a Well-Connected Earth
| Josh A. Firth et al. | Nature Reviews Biodiversity | November 13, 2025
Argues that connectivity planning should consider possible ecological costs as well as benefits, including disease transmission and other effects of increased movement.
Snow Leopard Habitat Vulnerability Assessment Under Climate Change and Connectivity Corridor in Xinjiang
| Wei Cong et al. | Scientific Reports | April 25, 2025
Maps present and future habitat suitability for snow leopards and identifies corridors that could maintain population connections under climate change.
Assessment of Habitat Fragmentation for Grey Wolf and Persian Leopard in Some Iranian Desert Landscapes
| Research authors | Scientific Reports | 2025
Finds that roads fragment otherwise well-protected wolf and leopard habitat and recommends managing road crossings and core habitats together.
Priority Areas and Implementation of Ecological Corridor Through Forest Restoration to Safeguard Biodiversity
| Mayara Guimarães Beltrão et al. | Scientific Reports | December 28, 2024
Identifies where forest restoration could most effectively create ecological corridors linking fragmented habitat while maximizing biodiversity benefits.
A Synthesis of Priorities, Patterns, and Gaps in Large Carnivore Corridor Research
| Alienor Chauvenet et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2023
Reviews the scientific literature on corridors for large carnivores and identifies geographic, taxonomic, and methodological gaps that limit conservation planning.
Urban Wildlife Corridors: Building Bridges for Wildlife and People
| Travis Longcore et al. | Frontiers in Sustainable Cities | 2022
Reviews ways cities can maintain wildlife movement through green infrastructure, restored habitat, land acquisition, partnerships, and strategically protected urban corridors.
Evidence for Corridor Effectiveness and Corridor Design
Impacts of Human Development on Wildlife Use of Corridors in Botswana
| Adams et al. | Integrative Conservation | 2026
Investigates how human development affects wildlife use of movement corridors in Botswana and shows why corridor protection must account for surrounding land uses.
Modelling Elephant Corridors Over Two Decades Reveals Opportunities for Conserving Connectivity Across a Large Protected Area Network
| R. A. Giliba, C. Kiffner, P. Fust and J. Loos | PLOS ONE | October 13, 2023
Uses two decades of elephant observations to identify persistent movement corridors and opportunities to maintain connections among protected areas.
Predicting Wildlife Corridors for Multiple Species in an East African Ungulate Community
| Jason Riggio et al. | PLOS ONE | April 5, 2022
Develops multispecies corridor models for East African ungulates and demonstrates how different species can require substantially different movement pathways.
Corridors Best Facilitate Functional Connectivity Across a Protected Area Network
| Frances E. C. Stewart et al. | Scientific Reports | July 26, 2019
Uses animal movement data to compare alternative corridor designs and finds that structurally similar habitat corridors can outperform several common connectivity models.
Structural Connectivity at a National Scale: Wildlife Corridors in Tanzania
| Jason Riggio and Tim Caro | PLOS ONE | 2017
Assesses Tanzania's wildlife corridors at a national scale and highlights links threatened by agriculture, settlements, roads, and other forms of development.
Identifying Corridors Among Large Protected Areas in the United States
| R. Travis Belote et al. | PLOS ONE | April 22, 2016
Maps relatively intact routes between large protected areas across the contiguous United States to identify priorities for maintaining a national conservation network.
Carbon Stock Corridors to Mitigate Climate Change and Promote Biodiversity in the Tropics
| Patrick Jantz, Scott Goetz and Nadine Laporte | Nature Climate Change | January 26, 2014
Shows how tropical corridors can be designed to connect protected areas while simultaneously conserving biodiversity and high-carbon landscapes.
A Meta-Analytic Review of Corridor Effectiveness
Synthesizes 78 experiments and finds that corridors increased movement between habitat patches by roughly 50 percent compared with unconnected patches.
Corridors Increase Plant Species Richness at Large Scales
| Ellen I. Damschen et al. | Science | September 1, 2006
Reports a large replicated experiment showing that connected habitat patches retained more native plant species than isolated patches without increasing exotic species.
Designing Large-Scale Conservation Corridors for Pattern and Process
| Mathieu Rouget et al. | Conservation Biology | April 2006
Presents a systematic method for designing large regional corridors that simultaneously conserve biodiversity patterns and ecological processes in South Africa.
Corridor Modeling and Field Validation
Lenses on the Linkage: Camera Trapping Unveils High Mammalian Diversity in a Wildlife Corridor in Odisha, India
Camera traps recorded 25 mammal species in Atei Reserve Forest, demonstrating the biodiversity value of a corridor linking India's Similipal and Satkosia Tiger Reserves.
Using Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Records to Inform Wildlife Corridor Planning
Demonstrates how wildlife-vehicle collision records can help planners identify movement routes and prioritize potential corridor protection and road mitigation.
Conservation Priority Corridors Enhance the Effectiveness of Protected Area Networks in China
| Weicheng Sun et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | April 9, 2025
Shows how strategically selected ecological corridors could make China's protected-area network substantially more connected and effective for biodiversity.
A Wildlife Corridor Site Selection Method Based on Habitat Suitability Assessment of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau
| Research authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | April 2025
Develops a corridor-selection method for Tibetan antelope and identifies priority sites where movement connections could be maintained or restored.
Rapid Appraisal of Wildlife Corridor Viability With Geospatial Modelling and Field Data: Lessons From Makuyuni, Tanzania
| Emmanuel H. Lyimo et al. | Land | October 9, 2024
Combines geospatial models with field observations to assess whether the Makuyuni wildlife corridor remains viable in a rapidly changing Tanzanian landscape.
Identifying Priority Corridors and Bottlenecks for Three Threatened Large Mammal Species in an Oil Palm-Dominated Landscape
| Research authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | October 2024
Maps movement bottlenecks for Asian elephants, Malayan sun bears, and Malayan tigers in Peninsular Malaysia's heavily modified oil-palm landscape.
Towards Robust Corridors: A Validation Framework to Improve Corridor Modeling
| Erin E. Poor et al. | Landscape Ecology | September 16, 2024
Proposes systematic methods for validating modeled corridors against independent wildlife data so conservation investments are directed toward connections animals actually use.
Identifying Wildlife Corridors to Restore Population Connectivity: An Integration Approach Involving Multiple Data Sources
| Research authors | Global Ecology and Conservation | September 2024
Combines ecological information with community perspectives to identify potential Asiatic black bear corridors in Thailand's Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai landscape.
Functional Landscape Connectivity for a Select Few: Linkages Do Not Consistently Predict Wildlife Movement or Occupancy
| Research authors | Landscape and Urban Planning | March 2024
Warns that mapped structural linkages do not automatically translate into functional corridors and emphasizes the need to validate modeled connections with actual wildlife data.
Consolidating Diverse Modeling Methods and Spatial Prioritization for Multispecies Connectivity Planning
| Research authors | Frontiers in Conservation Science | 2024
Combines multiple connectivity models for Florida wildlife species and compares priority movement areas with existing conservation lands and Florida Wildlife Corridor priorities.
Roads, Wildlife Crossings, and Infrastructure
Zero Roadkill as Amazon Canopy Bridges Secure 15,000 Crossings
| Suzana Camargo | Mongabay | July 21, 2026
Reports thousands of documented wildlife crossings on artificial canopy bridges in Brazil, demonstrating how targeted structures can reconnect forest habitat across roads.
A Win-Win: Animal Crossings Make Roads Safer for Wildlife and People
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | July 9, 2026
Summarizes evidence that crossing structures paired with fencing can reduce animal deaths while maintaining movement between fragmented habitats.
Mule Deer Are Already Using California's First Wildlife Crossing—and It's Not Even Finished Yet
| Sarah Kuta | Smithsonian Magazine | June 11, 2026
Reports that mule deer began using a new highway overpass in Northern California before construction was complete, demonstrating rapid wildlife acceptance of the structure.
The Long and Winding Road to Safe Highways: Inside the Global Movement to Reconnect Habitat
| Ben Goldfarb | Mongabay | June 10, 2026
Surveys wildlife overpasses, underpasses, fencing, and other road-ecology measures being used around the world to restore habitat connections.
Above an Australian Highway, a Bridge Reconnects Wilderness for Quolls, Koalas and Other Animals
| Starre Vartan | Mongabay | May 22, 2026
Describes an Australian wildlife overpass built to restore movement between habitat blocks separated by a major highway.
California's Wildlife Bridge Became a Target for the Right. Now It's Eyeing the Finish Line
| Katharine Gammon | The Guardian | April 25, 2026
Examines construction of the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, designed to reconnect mountain lion and other wildlife habitat severed by the 101 Freeway.
Wildlife Crossings: A Win-Win for Wildlife and Drivers
| Maria Luisa Rossel | National Wildlife Federation | March 12, 2026
Explains how properly located wildlife crossings improve movement between habitats while increasing highway safety for motorists.
Wildlife Crossings Save Lives, Cut Costs, and Protect Animals
| The Pew Charitable Trusts | Pew | January 29, 2026
Reviews evidence that overpasses, underpasses, and fencing can reconnect habitat while sharply reducing costly and dangerous wildlife-vehicle collisions.
Camera Shows Sumatra Orangutan Using a Canopy Bridge to Cross a Road in Indonesia
| Associated Press | AP News | 2026
Reports the first documented Sumatran orangutan using an artificial canopy bridge installed to reconnect forest habitat divided by a public road.
Connectivity Influences Wildlife-Vehicle Collision Hotspots
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | July 15, 2025
Examines the complicated relationship between habitat connectivity, traffic patterns, land cover, and wildlife-vehicle collision hotspots.
Wildlife Underpasses Reduce Amphibian Mortality
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | June 9, 2025
Reviews evidence that appropriately designed road underpasses can reduce amphibian deaths while reconnecting breeding and seasonal habitats.
Light Pollution Decreases Usefulness of Road Underpasses
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | April 30, 2025
Describes research showing that artificial lighting can discourage wildlife from using road underpasses and thereby reduce their connectivity benefits.
Wildlife Crossings as a Tool to Mitigate Climate Change
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | January 20, 2025
Explores how crossing structures can be planned with future climate-driven shifts in animal ranges and migration routes in mind.
Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program Grant Selections for Fiscal Years 2024-2025
| Federal Highway Administration | U.S. Department of Transportation | 2025
Lists federally funded wildlife-crossing and connectivity projects across the United States, including overpasses, underpasses, fencing, mapping, and collision studies.
Road Mitigation Structures: Do They Work for All Species?
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | September 19, 2024
Reviews research showing that crossing structures differ greatly in effectiveness among species and should be designed around local wildlife behavior.
How Well Do Wildlife Crossing Structures Work?
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | June 17, 2024
Summarizes evidence on the factors determining whether wildlife actually use overpasses, underpasses, culverts, and other road-crossing structures.
Influence of Land Use Intensity on Ecological Corridors and Wildlife Crossings' Effectiveness
| Research authors | Nature Conservation | 2024
Compares corridor and wildlife-crossing performance in two Austrian landscapes along internationally important Alpine and Central European movement routes.
A Suite of Wildlife Crossing Structures Facilitates Mammal Movement Across Tropical Forest Fragments in a City
| L. S. Tay et al. | Ecosphere | 2024
Evaluates multiple crossing structures in Singapore and finds that different designs can facilitate movement by mammals across an intensely urbanized tropical landscape.
Evaluating Impacts of Border Wall Construction on Wildlife Entrapment and Drowning in the Lower Rio Grande Valley
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | September 19, 2023
Studies how border infrastructure can obstruct wildlife movement and create entrapment risks in an ecologically important transboundary landscape.
Forecasting Seasonal Habitat Connectivity in a Developing Landscape
Models black bear movement through a developing Massachusetts landscape and shows how dynamic seasonal models can identify connections likely to remain useful into the future.
Wildlife Corridors in Africa
John Salehe Helped Shape Tanzania's Community Conservation Movement
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | August 15, 2026
Profiles a Tanzanian conservation leader whose work helped establish community wildlife management approaches important to maintaining large connected landscapes.
Thermal Drones Deployed in Kenya's Amboseli Park to Tackle Human-Elephant Conflict
| Aimable Twahirwa | Mongabay | August 7, 2026
Reports on technology used around Amboseli and the Kimana corridor to detect elephants and reduce conflict along heavily used wildlife movement routes.
Africa 2025 Year in Review
| The Nature Conservancy | The Nature Conservancy | 2026
Highlights the Kafue-West Lunga corridor in Zambia and efforts to maintain elephant movement through community lands within the larger KAZA landscape.
Congo's Communities Are Creating a 1-Million-Hectare Biodiversity Corridor
| Elodie Toto | Mongabay | December 18, 2025
Reports on community-led plans to connect roughly one million hectares of forest habitat in the Republic of Congo through locally managed conservation areas.
Corridors, Not Culls, Offer Solution to Southern Africa's Growing Elephant Population
| Ryan Truscott | Journal of African Elephants | December 12, 2025
Examines arguments that reopening cross-border elephant movement routes offers a more durable management strategy than reducing populations through culling.
A Maasai Conservancy Uses Private Lands to Protect Kenya's Wildlife Corridors
| Elodie Toto | Mongabay | December 1, 2025
Explores how Maasai landowners are combining livestock production and wildlife conservation to maintain movement routes through privately owned rangelands.
Ancient Elephant Migration Routes Are Being Blocked Off—Can Anything Stop the Rising Death Toll?
| The Guardian | The Guardian | October 22, 2025
Investigates how highways, railways, fences, and settlements are blocking long-established African elephant routes and intensifying human-elephant conflict.
Migrating Elephants Get Room to Roam Via Community Conservation Efforts
| Hillary Rosner | Mongabay | October 14, 2025
Describes community conservation initiatives that protect traditional elephant routes across landscapes shared by wildlife, livestock, and people.
Plan Unveiled for Sh622 Million Wildlife Corridor Linking Nairobi Park to Kapiti
| Maureen Kinyanjui | Radio Generation Kenya | July 1, 2025
Reports on a major proposal to preserve and restore the Nairobi National Park-Kapiti migration and dispersal corridor.
Nairobi's Lions Are Almost Encircled by the City. A Maasai Community Offers a Key Corridor Out
| Peter Muiruri | The Guardian | June 25, 2025
Examines the crucial southern migration corridor from Nairobi National Park and the Maasai landowners whose open rangelands keep the route functioning.
For Wandering Elephants, Path of Least Resistance Could Help Map Out Safe Corridors
| Ryan Truscott | Mongabay | March 31, 2025
Reports on research using elephant movement and landscape resistance to identify safer and more functional corridors across human-dominated landscapes.
Inclusive Conservation Can Benefit Wildlife Connectivity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | February 18, 2025
Highlights research showing that community-inclusive conservation can improve landscape connectivity for lions in Tanzania's Ngorongoro Conservation Area.
'Wildlife Corridors' Are Encouraged to Support Kenya's Recovering Animal Populations
| Associated Press | AP News | 2025
Describes Kenya's efforts to protect and reopen corridors as recovering elephant, rhino, zebra, and lion populations face shrinking habitat and rapid development.
Wildlife Corridors in a Southern African Conservation Landscape
| Michael Bollig | Anthropology Southern Africa | August 8, 2024
Examines wildlife corridors through political ecology, showing how animal mobility, conservation policy, infrastructure, and human livelihoods interact.
Relationships Between Anthropogenic Activities and Medium to Large Mammal Assemblages in the Madi Wildlife Corridor
Examines how farming, settlements, and other human pressures affect mammals using Uganda's Madi Wildlife Corridor.
Maasai Community Commits to Protecting Last Remaining Wildlife Corridor Between Amboseli and the Mara
| IFAW | International Fund for Animal Welfare | March 6, 2024
Details a community-led agreement intended to secure an important movement route between the Amboseli and Maasai Mara ecosystems.
Securing a Critical Wildlife Corridor in Kenya's Northern Rangelands
| Rainforest Trust | Rainforest Trust | 2024
Describes efforts to protect community lands connecting important wildlife habitat in northern Kenya for elephants and many other species.
Wildlife Corridor Degradation and Human-Wildlife Conflict: A Case Study From Tanzania
| M. Elisa et al. | African Journal of Ecology | 2024
Documents settlement and agricultural expansion in the corridor between Katavi and Mahale National Parks and links corridor degradation with growing human-wildlife conflict.
How Do African Elephants Utilize the Landscape During Wet Season? A Habitat Connectivity Analysis for Sioma Ngwezi Landscape in Zambia
| Research authors | Peer-Reviewed Research | 2021
Uses elephant movement data to identify habitat connections and areas of concentrated movement across Zambia's Sioma Ngwezi landscape.
Greater Ruaha-Katavi Landscape
| Wildlife Conservation Society | WCS Tanzania | n.d.
Describes conservation of a vast Tanzanian landscape containing nationally important wildlife corridors linking protected areas and community lands.
Wildlife Corridors in Asia
Safeguarding Passageways Is the Next Step for India's Growing Tiger Populations
| Mongabay.com | Mongabay | August 17, 2026
Explains why protecting dispersal corridors between India's tiger reserves is becoming increasingly important as tiger populations recover.
New Ropeways Aim to Save Wildlife in Bangladesh's Fragmented Habitats
| Sadiqur Rahman | Mongabay | August 11, 2026
Reports on rope bridges designed to reconnect tree canopies for primates and other arboreal wildlife where roads have divided forests in Bangladesh.
India's Tiger Numbers Are Rising; Protecting Their Pathways Is Next
| Nirmal Ghosh | Mongabay | July 28, 2026
Examines why India's growing tiger population increases the urgency of safeguarding forest links between reserves before development closes dispersal routes.
Dusky Langurs Start Using New Canopy Bridge in Malaysia's Penang Island
| Naina Rao | Mongabay | July 6, 2026
Reports successful use of an artificial canopy crossing designed to allow arboreal primates to move safely across a road in Penang.
What Is Killing Sumatra's Elephants? The Battle to Save One of Our Rarest Animals
| Tonggo Simangunsong | The Guardian | May 28, 2026
Examines habitat fragmentation and conflict affecting Sumatran elephants, including proposals to map and protect corridors between increasingly isolated populations.
Citizen Science Helps Reconnect Singapore Treetops for Elusive Leaf-Eating Langurs
| Carolyn Cowan | Mongabay | April 23, 2026
Shows how volunteer monitoring, habitat planting, and rope bridges are reconnecting forest fragments for critically endangered Raffles' banded langurs.
Push for Solar Park in Sri Lanka's Elephant Terrain Raises Concern
| Malaka Rodrigo | Mongabay | April 21, 2026
Examines concern that infrastructure development in elephant habitat could further obstruct movement and intensify human-elephant conflict.
Hope for Tigers Grows as Thailand Safeguards a Key Link in Their Habitat
| Gloria Dickie | Mongabay | December 16, 2025
Describes protection of Thailand's Si Sawat Corridor, which allows recovering tiger populations to disperse from the northern Western Forest Complex into southern reserves.
Connectivity in National Policies: India
| Bhuvan Ravindran | Conservation Corridor | July 30, 2025
Reviews India's long history of protecting tiger and elephant corridors and the expanding role of ecological connectivity in national conservation policy.
Kyrgyz Republic Unveils 800,000-Hectare Ecological Corridor for Biodiversity
| United Nations Environment Programme | UNEP | May 22, 2025
Reports establishment of a vast ecological corridor intended to connect protected mountain habitats for snow leopards and other Central Asian wildlife.
WCS Mongolia Strengthens Local Partnerships for Conservation
| Wildlife Conservation Society | WCS Mongolia | April 28, 2025
Describes community and government partnerships for maintaining connectivity among protected landscapes in Mongolia's Gobi region.
Utilizing Spatial Modeling to Evaluate Habitat Suitability and Develop Conservation Corridors for Asian Elephants in Malaysia
| Research authors | Ecological Modelling | March 2025
Uses spatial modeling in Jeli, Kelantan, to identify suitable elephant habitat and potential corridors that could reduce fragmentation and conflict.
Land Sharing, Sparing and Connectivity Aid Tiger Recovery
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | February 24, 2025
Reviews evidence from India showing that tiger recovery is strongest where protected areas are complemented by corridors through shared human-wildlife landscapes.
Habitat Suitability Evaluation and Ecological Corridor Construction for Asian Elephants
| Research authors | Forests | 2024
Identifies suitable Asian elephant habitat and potential ecological corridors around Jiangcheng in southwestern China to guide land-use and conservation planning.
Why Did the Orangutan Cross the Toll Road to Indonesia's New Capital City?
| Hans Nicholas Jong | Mongabay | June 27, 2023
Investigates how highway construction near Indonesia's new capital fragments orangutan habitat and the measures proposed to preserve wildlife connectivity.
Finding Ways to Increase Connectivity and Decrease Conflict
| Fahimeh Baziari | Conservation Corridor | February 22, 2023
Describes a framework that maps where Asian elephant movement corridors overlap with places where conflict with people is most likely.
Use of Human Dominated Landscape as Connectivity Corridors Among Fragmented Habitats for Wild Asian Elephants in Thailand
| Research authors | Diversity | December 21, 2022
Shows that Asian elephants use agricultural and other human-dominated landscapes as movement links between fragmented forest habitats in eastern Thailand.
Analysis of Landscape Connectivity Among the Habitats of Asian Elephants in Keonjhar Forest Division, India
| Research authors | Remote Sensing | 2021
Uses remote sensing and connectivity modeling to locate important links between elephant habitat patches in eastern India.
Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex
| Wildlife Conservation Society | WCS Thailand | n.d.
Describes Thailand's first major wildlife corridor structure linking Khao Yai and Thap Lan National Parks and its importance for tiger and prey recovery.
Tracking the Black Panthers of Malaysia
| Cheryl Lyn Dybas | Panthera | n.d.
Discusses black leopard research and threats posed by a highway bisecting Malaysia's Kenyir Wildlife Corridor.
Wildlife Corridors in the Americas
How to Stitch a Massive Wildlife Corridor Through the Rocky Mountains
| Jane Palmer | Mongabay | July 22, 2026
Explores efforts to preserve movement routes through the Rocky Mountains by combining protected areas, private lands, road crossings, and conservation easements.
Why a New England Town Is Building Tunnels to Protect an Imperiled Salamander
| Alex Megerle | Mongabay | July 22, 2026
Reports on amphibian tunnels designed to reconnect seasonal salamander movement routes severed by roads.
How Effective Are Canopy Bridges, Really?
| Bobby Bascomb | Mongabay | July 9, 2026
Examines long-term monitoring of canopy bridges on Costa Rica's Osa Peninsula and what researchers are learning about which species use artificial crossings.
A Rare 'Cloud Jaguar' Was Spotted in Honduran Mountains for the First Time in a Decade
| Sara Hashemi | Smithsonian Magazine | April 23, 2026
Reports evidence that a high-elevation jaguar corridor between Honduras and Guatemala remains functional after years of conservation investment.
Ecuador's New Ecological Corridor Connects Andes and Amazon Ecosystems
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | March 9, 2026
Reports on a newly recognized ecological corridor linking habitats across the steep environmental gradient between the Andes and Amazon.
Everglades to Gulf Conservation Area Planning Team
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | November 2025
Highlights planning for a four-million-acre conservation landscape intended to maintain a continuous wildlife corridor across southwest Florida.
Fences, Tech and Trust Help Save Jaguars in Panama's Darién
| Marlowe Starling | Mongabay | August 12, 2025
Examines coexistence measures designed to keep Panama's Darién functioning as a critical jaguar connection between Central and South America.
Take a Walk on the Wild(life) Side
| Dan Chapman | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | July 31, 2025
Describes Georgia's emerging Dugdown Mountain Corridor, a nearly 100,000-acre network intended to connect habitat from metropolitan Atlanta toward Alabama's Talladega National Forest.
Where Andes Meet Amazon, a New 'Lifeline' for Wildlife
| Mary Kate McCoy | Conservation International | July 30, 2025
Describes conservation of a corridor linking Andean and Amazonian ecosystems, allowing wildlife to move across a highly biodiverse elevation gradient.
Forest Corridors Protect Colombia's Critically Endangered Brown Spider Monkey
| Sean Mowbray | Mongabay | July 2, 2025
Describes 15 restored corridors connecting isolated forest fragments for brown spider monkeys and other wildlife in Colombia's Middle Magdalena region.
Rio Reforestation
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 2025
Describes decades of community planting that restores native thorn forest within the Lower Rio Grande Valley's fragmented wildlife corridor.
Landscape Connectivity and Wildlife Access to Water in the Lower Rio Grande Valley
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | September 19, 2023
Studies how landscape barriers affect wildlife movement and access to scarce water sources in the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas.
New California Law Protects Wildlife Corridors—and a Lot More
| Matt Skroch and David Ellenberger | Pew | October 20, 2022
Explains California legislation requiring greater consideration of wildlife movement and habitat connectivity in transportation planning.
Huge Wildlife Corridor in Belize Sees Progress, Boosting Hope for Jaguars and More
| James Krupa | Mongabay | July 2021
Provides an update on conservation efforts aimed at securing a broad landscape connection for jaguars and other species in Belize.
Forest Cover Mediates Large and Medium-Sized Mammal Occurrence in a Critical Link of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor
| Roberto Salom-Pérez et al. | PLOS ONE | March 23, 2021
Camera-trap surveys in Costa Rica show that forest cover strongly determines whether jaguars, pumas, and other mammals occupy a critical section of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Belize to Protect Critical Wildlife Corridor That's Home to Jaguars and More
| Shreya Dasgupta | Mongabay | June 24, 2019
Reports on efforts to protect Belize's Maya Forest Corridor, an important linkage for jaguars and other wildlife moving between major forest blocks.
Enhancing Wildlife Corridors in Nevada
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | March 18, 2019
Highlights collaborative projects designed to maintain migration routes and reduce barriers affecting Nevada wildlife.
Wildlife Corridors: Preserving and Restoring Critical Habitat Linkages in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands
| Ashlee Simpson | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 2018
Describes restoration and protection of habitat links used by wildlife moving across the ecologically diverse U.S.-Mexico borderlands.
Protected Land for Wildlife Corridors
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | May 16, 2016
Explains research using protected-land and landscape data to identify corridors between large conservation areas across the United States.
Connecting Wildlife Habitats
| National Wildlife Federation | National Wildlife Federation | n.d.
Provides an overview of habitat fragmentation, migration routes, wildlife crossings, and national efforts to maintain connected landscapes.
Australia, Europe, and International Connectivity
Connectivity in National Policies: Kyrgyz Republic
| Wren Murphy | Conservation Corridor | December 19, 2025
Examines national policies supporting migration routes and ecological connectivity across Kyrgyzstan's mountainous landscapes.
IUCN Approves New Policy for Ecological Corridors
| Gabriel Oppler and Aaron Laur | Conservation Corridor | October 29, 2025
Reports on an IUCN policy recognizing ecological corridors as a central tool for creating connected conservation networks.
Indigenous Areas Provide Crucial Ecosystem Connectivity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | October 13, 2025
Reviews evidence that Indigenous-managed lands frequently provide important connections among protected areas and intact ecosystems.
What Does It Mean to Be "Well Connected"?
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | June 24, 2025
Examines different scientific definitions and measures of ecological connectivity and their implications for corridor planning.
New Guidance for Transboundary Conservation
| Gabriel Oppler | Conservation Corridor | April 25, 2025
Summarizes international guidance for maintaining ecological connectivity across political borders and separately managed conservation areas.
Global Connectivity of Migratory Birds at Risk
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | March 10, 2025
Reviews research showing that migratory birds depend on networks of breeding, wintering, and stopover habitats that are increasingly threatened by fragmentation.
'I Need Your Help Saving Koalas': How Australians Banded Together to Build Wildlife Corridors
| Royce Kurmelovs | The Guardian | June 13, 2024
Describes a community effort in New South Wales that has planted hundreds of thousands of trees to reconnect fragmented koala habitat.
Migratory Connectivity Shifts Under Climate Change
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | January 30, 2024
Explores how climate change can alter the connections between seasonal ranges and reshape migration networks.
What Are Wildlife Corridors?
Explains the ecological functions of wildlife corridors and Australia's approach to connecting fragmented landscapes.
Ecological Corridors for the Amphibians and Reptiles in the Natura 2000 Sites of Romania
| Research authors | Scientific Reports | 2020
Maps ecological connections for amphibians and reptiles within Romania's Natura 2000 network and identifies areas important for maintaining movement.
Habitat Fragmentation, Matrix Quality, and Connectivity
High-Quality Matrices Support Bird Diversity in Forest Fragments
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | June 18, 2026
Reviews evidence that tree-rich landscapes surrounding forest fragments can increase bird diversity and make isolated habitat patches more connected.
Forest Fragmentation and Loss Intensifies Droughts
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | February 23, 2026
Examines how breaking forests into isolated pieces can alter regional climate processes, adding another ecological cost to fragmented landscapes.
The Role of the Matrix at Patch and Landscape Scales
| Thomas A. H. Smith | Conservation Corridor | December 15, 2025
Explains why habitat between protected patches can determine whether animals successfully disperse even when formal corridors are present.
Connectivity Matters, but Especially Where Woodland Cover Is Scarce
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | July 10, 2025
Reviews evidence that maintaining connections becomes particularly valuable in landscapes where relatively little natural woodland remains.
Habitat Fragmentation and Edges Matter for Soil Microorganisms
| Claire Winfrey | Conservation Corridor | May 12, 2025
Shows that fragmentation affects ecological communities below ground as well as visible wildlife populations.
Resolving a 50-Year Debate: Fragmentation Decreases Biodiversity on Multiple Scales
| Katherine Hulting | Conservation Corridor | March 17, 2025
Summarizes large-scale evidence that habitat fragmentation independently contributes to biodiversity loss beyond the effects of habitat loss itself.
The Matrix Matters for Biodiversity
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | October 21, 2024
Reviews research demonstrating that the ecological quality of land surrounding habitat patches can greatly influence movement and population persistence.
Rethinking Landscape Ecology and Metapopulation Dynamics
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | August 16, 2024
Explores new research on how habitat arrangement, dispersal, and landscape permeability influence populations living in fragmented environments.
Functional Connectivity Can Be Seasonal
| Katherine Hulting | Conservation Corridor | July 8, 2024
Shows why corridors that appear important during one season may be less useful during another, making temporal variation important in connectivity planning.
How Dangerous Is Dispersal Across Habitat Boundaries?
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | May 20, 2024
Examines mortality and behavioral risks animals face when moving from protected habitat into agricultural or otherwise modified landscapes.
Connectivity Across Ecosystems
Aquatic-Terrestrial Connectivity Sustains Communities
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | April 21, 2026
Reviews research demonstrating how ecological connections between rivers and surrounding terrestrial habitat sustain birds and other wildlife.
Connectivity and Habitat Edges Affect Multiple Plant-Arthropod Interactions
| Katherine Hulting | Conservation Corridor | March 6, 2026
Uses experimental corridor research to show that connectivity changes relationships among plants, pollinators, herbivores, and predators.
Planning Approaches for Coastal Connectivity Under Sea-Level Rise
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | January 20, 2026
Explores ways conservation planners can preserve inland movement pathways as coastal ecosystems migrate in response to rising seas.
Deep-Sea Life Connects Across Oceans
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | September 12, 2025
Reviews research showing that ecological connectivity also operates across immense marine distances and ocean basins.
Identifying Key Connections for Migratory Marine Animals
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | June 16, 2025
Discusses methods for mapping migration routes and important connections used by highly mobile marine wildlife.
Marine Reserve Networks Have Outsized Benefits for Both Reefs and Fisheries
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | April 16, 2025
Examines how connected networks of marine reserves can outperform isolated protected areas by supporting dispersal and replenishment.
Migration Connects Ecosystems Through Nutrient Subsidies
| Katherine Hulting | Conservation Corridor | December 9, 2024
Explains how migrating wildlife transports nutrients between distant ecosystems, making movement corridors important for ecological processes as well as individual animals.
Spanning the Ocean Depths to Better Conserve Marine Biodiversity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | June 24, 2024
Reviews connectivity among marine habitats at different depths and implications for designing more complete conservation networks.
Population Synchrony Across Ecosystem Boundaries
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | March 15, 2024
Examines how connected ecosystems can synchronize wildlife populations and ecological processes across habitat boundaries.
Connectivity Supports Ecosystem Resilience to Regime Shifts
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | February 22, 2024
Reviews evidence that ecological connectivity can help ecosystems recover from major disturbances and resist shifts into degraded states.
Climate Resilience and Connected Protected-Area Networks
Synergies Between Protected Area Types Strengthen Connectivity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | November 7, 2025
Shows how combining different categories of protected and conserved lands can create stronger landscape-scale ecological networks.
Connectivity Matters During Climate Extremes
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | July 21, 2025
Examines evidence that connected habitats can help wildlife respond to drought, heat, and other extreme climatic conditions.
Less Than 3% of U.S. Land Is Protected and Connected
| Alice Dykstra | Conservation Corridor | April 4, 2025
Reviews an assessment finding that only a small portion of the contiguous United States is simultaneously protected and connected to other conserved lands.
Human Activity Disrupts Functional Connectivity
| Katherine Hulting | Conservation Corridor | January 18, 2024
Reviews research showing how roads, artificial light, noise, and human activity alter mule deer behavior and reduce effective landscape connectivity.
Anticipating Implementation Challenges in Connectivity Conservation
| Matt Williamson | Conservation Corridor | October 26, 2023
Explores how social, economic, and political resistance can prevent scientifically identified corridors from becoming functioning conservation projects.
Effective and Cost-Efficient Infrastructure Planning That Incorporates Connectivity
| Thomas Nuhfer | Conservation Corridor | September 18, 2023
Describes an approach for incorporating wildlife connectivity into infrastructure upgrades while considering project costs and practical constraints.
Can High-Quality Corridors Buffer Wildlife From Climate Extinction?
| Thomas Nuhfer | Conservation Corridor | July 18, 2023
Reviews experimental evidence that good-quality corridors can slow population declines and reduce extinction risk during severe drought.
A Connected Network for All Species Under Climate Change
| The Nature Conservancy | Conservation Corridor | May 18, 2023
Describes a U.S. conservation network designed around biodiversity representation, landscape resilience, and connectivity under a changing climate.
New National Policy Promotes Collaborative Habitat Connectivity Conservation on Public Lands
| Braden Hance | Conservation Corridor | January 31, 2023
Reviews a Bureau of Land Management policy that elevates habitat connectivity in public-land planning and encourages collaboration with state and Tribal partners.
Mapping Local and Regional Connectivity Across North America
| Fahimeh Baziari | Conservation Corridor | January 25, 2023
Describes continent-scale mapping that identifies both local movement opportunities and longer regional connections across North America.
Corridor Planning, Policy, Governance, and Community Conservation
Connectivity: Ecological Corridors Are Key to Protecting Biodiversity
| Jodi Hilty | One Earth | December 17, 2025
Provides an overview of the growing international recognition that protected areas must be connected rather than managed as isolated ecological islands.
Local Community Efforts Expand Wildlife Corridor Projects and Plans
| Kylie Paul | Conservation Corridor | November 25, 2025
Highlights community-driven projects that protect wildlife movement while incorporating local land ownership and livelihood needs.
New Guide: Local Planning for Habitat Connectivity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | September 30, 2025
Introduces practical guidance for incorporating wildlife corridors and ecological connectivity into local government land-use decisions.
Smart Growth: How Wildlife Corridor Planning Pays Off for Local Communities
| Anna Wearn and Nic Callero | Pew | September 8, 2025
Shows how communities can integrate habitat connectivity into growth planning while gaining recreation, safety, resilience, and other local benefits.
Bridging the Gap Between Connectivity Science and Action
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | August 20, 2025
Examines why scientifically identified corridors are not always protected and how researchers and practitioners can improve implementation.
TNCC Annual Report 2024-2025
| Tribal Nations Conservation Collaborative | TNCC | 2025
Highlights Indigenous-led landscape conservation and wildlife connectivity planning involving Tribal lands and neighboring jurisdictions.
The Science and Practice of Connectivity Model Validation
| Tyler Creech | Conservation Corridor | November 11, 2024
Explains why modeled corridors should be tested against wildlife observations before governments or conservation groups invest in permanent protection.
Wildlife Connectivity: Fundamentals for Conservation Action
| Center for Large Landscape Conservation | Network for Landscape Conservation | March 28, 2024
Provides an accessible guide to connectivity science, corridor identification, planning, governance, and implementation.
Outcomes of COP14 of the Convention on Migratory Species
| Gabriel Oppler | Conservation Corridor | March 21, 2024
Summarizes international decisions affecting migratory species, ecological connectivity, and conservation of movement routes across national borders.
Connectivity Metrics for Protected Area Networks
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | February 15, 2024
Reviews alternative measures governments can use to determine whether protected areas form genuinely connected ecological networks.
Traditional Ecological Knowledge in Corridor Restoration
| Thomas Nuhfer | Conservation Corridor | September 12, 2023
Discusses how Indigenous and traditional ecological knowledge can improve restoration and management of connected landscapes.
Guidance for Federal Agencies on Corridors and Connectivity
| Heather Cayton | Conservation Corridor | April 18, 2023
Summarizes U.S. federal guidance directing agencies to consider ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors in planning and management decisions.
What Is Connectivity Conservation?
| Heather Cayton / Connectivity Conservation Specialist Group | Conservation Corridor | 2023
Defines connectivity conservation and explains its role in maintaining species movement, ecological flows, and climate resilience across fragmented landscapes.
Secretary Haaland Announces Progress Toward Conservation and Restoration of Wildlife Corridors and Habitat Connectivity
| Communications and Publishing | USGS | April 7, 2022
Describes federal research and mapping initiatives intended to conserve migration routes, seasonal habitat, and landscape connectivity in the United States.
Wildlife Corridors
| Susan Morse | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 2021
Introduces the ecological value of connected habitat and explains how corridors allow wildlife to disperse, migrate, find mates, and adapt to changing conditions.
Connectivity in Adapt-or-Die Landscapes
| Adam Ford | Conservation Corridor | September 30, 2020
Explains why wildlife movement pathways become increasingly important as climate and land-use changes force species to shift their ranges.
Effective Corridor Width: Linking the Spatial Ecology of Wildlife With Land Use Policy
| Adam Ford et al. | European Journal of Wildlife Research | July 29, 2020
Examines how wildlife movement data can inform minimum corridor widths and translate ecological evidence into practical land-use policy.
Legislative Hearing on the Wildlife Corridors Conservation Act
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | 2019
Explains proposals for a national wildlife corridor system, Tribal corridor designations, grants, regional movement councils, and a national corridor database.
Ecological Connectivity Analysis to Reduce the Barrier Effect of Roads
| Research authors | Landscape and Urban Planning | 2015
Uses graph theory to identify multiple-path wildlife corridors and reduce bottlenecks where roads fragment forest habitat in the Iberian Peninsula.
Identification and Uniform Mapping of Wildlife Corridors and Crucial Habitat
| Bureau of Land Management | BLM | December 13, 2011
Establishes guidance for consistent identification and mapping of wildlife corridors and crucial habitat on public lands.
Corridor Restoration and Additional Case Studies
'My Son's Son Will See This Elephant'
| Will McCarry | Conservation International | July 6, 2026
Explores community-centered elephant conservation in landscapes where maintaining habitat and safe movement routes is essential to long-term coexistence.
Great Koala National Park Tests Whether Protected Forests Can Stay Connected
| Rhett Ayers Butler | Mongabay | May 25, 2026
Examines whether Australia's expanded koala protections will preserve continuous forest connections rather than leaving protected habitat as disconnected patches.
Australia's New National Park Links Habitat to Protect Koalas
| Johan Augustin | Mongabay | May 6, 2026
Reports on protection intended to connect koala habitat and strengthen a larger landscape-scale conservation network.
Linking Habitats Strengthens Wildlife Microbiomes, Helps Fight Disease
| Sean Mowbray | Mongabay | April 23, 2026
Reports research suggesting that connected wildlife populations may maintain healthier microbial communities than populations isolated in fragmented habitat.
A Reforestation Corridor in Madagascar Offers a Future for Lemurs and Locals
| Marina Martinez | Mongabay | April 14, 2026
Describes forest restoration intended to reconnect isolated lemur habitat while generating environmental and economic benefits for neighboring communities.
Mennonite Farming in Belize Threatens Essential Biological Corridor, Critics Say
| Maxwell Radwin | Mongabay | July 14, 2025
Investigates agricultural clearing threatening forest connections used by jaguars and other wildlife within Belize's Mesoamerican Biological Corridor.
Can Communities Living Side by Side With Wildlife Beat Africa's National Parks at Conservation?
| Phoebe Weston | The Guardian | January 28, 2025
Examines African community conservancies, including landscapes that function as corridors between major wildlife areas while supporting local livelihoods.
Unlocking the Savanna: How MMTC Is Restoring Ecosystems
| Mara-Meru Cheetah Project / MMTC | MMTC | 2025
Describes restoration work intended to reopen wildlife movement routes through East African savanna landscapes affected by fragmentation.
A Multi-Scale Approach for Integrating Species Distribution Models With Landscape Connectivity to Identify Critical Linkage Zones for African Savanna Elephants
| Research authors | Ecological Modelling | 2025
Integrates habitat-suitability and connectivity modeling across spatial scales to identify critical linkage zones for African savanna elephants and improve corridor prioritization.
In Colombia, a Simple Fencing Fix Offers a Win-Win for Wildlife and Ranchers
| Marlowe Starling | Mongabay | November 28, 2024
Describes wildlife-friendly fencing practices that make agricultural landscapes more permeable to animals while continuing to contain livestock.
Shrimp Farms Threaten Mexico's Mangroves and the Jaguars That Inhabit Them
| Sarah Brown | Mongabay | July 11, 2024
Examines destruction of coastal mangrove habitat that forms part of a broader landscape used by jaguars moving through northwestern Mexico.
Identifying Umbrella and Indicator Species to Support Multispecies Population Connectivity in a Himalayan Biodiversity Hotspot
| Ugyen Penjor et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | January 25, 2024
Tests whether selected species can represent broader connectivity needs in a Himalayan landscape and provides guidance for designing multispecies conservation networks.
Who Is Adjusting to Whom? Differences in Elephant Diel Activity in Wildlife Corridors Across Different Human-Modified Landscapes
| Tempe S. F. Adams et al. | Frontiers in Conservation Science | July 28, 2022
Compares elephant activity patterns in corridors exposed to different degrees of human modification and shows how elephants alter movement timing around people.
How Wildlife Corridors Protect Animals and People
| The Pew Charitable Trusts / Jodi Hilty | Pew | January 22, 2021
Explains why connected landscapes are important for migration, climate adaptation, genetic exchange, and reducing dangerous interactions between wildlife and people.
Validating Movement Corridors for African Elephants Predicted From Resistance-Based Landscape Connectivity Models
| Liudmila Osipova et al. | Landscape Ecology | April 3, 2019
Tests modeled elephant corridors along the Kenya-Tanzania border against independent field and aerial survey data and finds strong support for the predicted movement pathways.
Do Wildlife Corridors Really Work?
| Virginia Hughes | Smithsonian Magazine | February 22, 2012
Examines early debates over how well large wildlife corridors perform and the need for stronger real-world evidence about their effects on populations and genetic connectivity.
A Compendium of Existing and Planned Australian Wildlife Corridor Projects and Initiatives
Catalogs corridor projects across Australia and illustrates the wide variety of regional, community, and landscape-scale approaches to habitat connectivity.
Modeling Wildlife Habitat Corridors
| U.S. Geological Survey | USGS | 2012
Reviews methods for modeling wildlife corridors and explains how connectivity supports dispersal, gene flow, migration, and long-term population persistence.
Global Patterns of Fragmentation and Connectivity of Mammalian Carnivore Habitat
Compares fragmentation and connectivity across 246 terrestrial carnivore species worldwide and identifies global patterns relevant to corridor conservation.
Multi-Species Grassland Restoration in Bonita Valley
| U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service | n.d.
Describes habitat restoration and fence modifications intended to improve movement and landscape permeability for multiple wildlife species.
