Wildlife Corridors

                                                                            CC: Crystal/Flickr

Wildlife Corridors are a relatively new idea in wildlife conservation, but they could open the door to populations expanding to their natural home ranges. Different populations of species are separated by civilization all over the world, so being able to connect them could allow for increased genetic diversity, more expansive population ranges, and populations moving back to their natural ranges. It could lead the way to established conservation all over the world, which would help preserve the few healthy ecosystems we have left.

Above is a male mountain lion living in the Santa Monica Mountains in California. He is surrounded by civilization, and unable to reach other mountain lions because of it. This means that he is unable to breed, which means his presence in the area is meaningless unless he is able to reproduce and bring in a steady population of mountain lions. The area most likely wouldn't be able to support a larger populations of mountain lions, but putting in a wildlife corridor would make it a much safer place and could add to the habitat of mountain lions. Mountain lions could then at least move in and out of the area to use the resources. 

Wildlife Corridors are put over highways and other major roadways to give wildlife a safer way of accessing areas they couldn't before, and prevent roadkill from occurring. They can be very fancy and complex, or very simple, but the fact that instead of having to cross eight lanes of traffic they can now have a much safer option, is a huge win for conservation. Wildlife Corridors are popping up more and more around the country, but we need to do more to give animals a better shot of being able to distribute. Wildlife Corridors are much more common in the Western United States than in Eastern United States, and it is in the east that these populations are the most scarce, so we need to build more all over the country.

Looking forward the distribution of these species relies on us, and we must make the effort to give them routes to safely pass from territory to territory. If we give these animals a shot, they will find a way, we just cannot make it impossible for them to travel.