Zoology: Wildlife and biodiversity; habitat connectivity

1. Submitted to:
Prof. (Dr.) Devinder Singh
Submitted by:
Harsimrat Kaur Dulai
M.Sc. 2nd Zoology
16521028

2. What are wildlife corridors?
 A wildlife corridor is a link of wildlife habitat, generally native
vegetation, which joins two or more larger areas of similar wildlife
habitat.
 Corridors are critical for the maintenance of ecological processes
including allowing for the movement of animals and the continuation
of viable populations.
 Corridors enable migration, colonisation and interbreeding of plants
and animals.
 Corridors can consist of discontinuous areas of habitat or they maybe
parts of a larger habitat area.

3. Why are corridors important?
The two main contributors to continuing biodiversity decline:
 Habitat loss
 Fragmentation

4. Corridor widths and design
As a general rule the wider the corridor the
better. Wider corridors provide for greater
diversity, have less impacts from adjoining land
uses and associated edge effects and provide
habitat in their own right.

5. How to design?
While designing a wildlife corridor, following features should be
implemented:
 Maintain as much natural open space as possible next to any culverts
to encourage the use of the culverts.
 Maximize land uses adjacent to the corridor that reduce human
impacts to the corridor.
 Do not allow housing or other impacts to project into the corridor to
form impediments to movement and increase harmful edge effects.

6. Contd...
 Bridged under crossings are preferable.
 On the road above the culverts, install speed bumps and wildlife crossing
signs to slow the cars, and prohibit street lighting to facilitate use of the
crossing.
 Plant native trees, shrubs and other plants to provide food and cover, as well
as nesting opportunities for birds.
 No wood fences should be allowed in the corridor and along any of the lots
adjacent to the corridor.
 No domestic pets are to be allowed in the corridor. Cats and dogs should be
trapped and returned to owners if they have a collar or brought to the animal
shelter if they have no identification tags.
 Any violations should be strictly enforced and citable.

7. Types of Corridors
Generally, wildlife corridors can be identified at 4 levels:
 Regional corridors
 Sub-regional corridors
 Local corridors
 Roadside corridors

8. Regional Corridors
 Regional corridors are primary landscape connections
between larger important areas of habitat.
 Generally substantial in width (> 500m).
 Ideally regional corridors should be at least twice the
width of the average home range area of the animal
species identified as potential users of the corridor.
E.g. Tableland corridors.

10. Sub-regional Corridors
 Not as substantial in width as regional corridors, should be
wide enough to provide landscape connections for species
movement and dispersal.
 Generally width is > 300m.
 Typically connect larger vegetated landscape features
such as ridgelines and valley floors.

12. Local Corridors
 Local corridors are smaller, less defined linkages that
provide local connection of remnant patches of
vegetation.
 They may in some cases be less than 50m in width and as
such may be influenced by edge effects.
E.g. creek lines, gullies, wetlands and ridgelines.

14. Roadside Corridors
 Roadside corridors and stock routes have been identified as important
conservation reserves for threatened flora species.
E.g. The conservation of Carnaby’s cockatoo in Western Australia.

16. Corridor Concerns
It is important to take into account the possibility
of negative, unintended consequences of corridor
creation in their design. Corridors may increase
dispersal of unwanted species, such as invasive
species, or antagonists (predators or diseases) of
conservation targets.

17. Cons of Corridors:
 Habitat connectivity causes interbreeding of distinct subpopulations in a
metapopulation leading to homogeneity rather than variability.
 Migratory birds can reach distant habitat islands independent of special
dispersal corridors all together causing biodiversity loss.
 Linked metapopulations face extinction threat due to fast spread rate of
disease between individuals as compared to isolated populations.
 All the subpopulations anyway will become correlated and face extinction.
This could be due to large scale environment transformation.

18. Corridor management
Management of a corridor should aim to retain and
enhance the existing vegetation cover and wildlife
habitats. This should include retaining vegetation cover
and structure including groundcovers, shrub layer and
canopy species, and logs on the ground.

19. Overall, corridor management should aim to ensure that ecological processes and
corridor function are maximised:
 maintain and increase vegetation cover and habitat quality to maximise
connection between larger remnants of vegetation.
 provide specific habitat resources and ecological needs, particularly for
threatened species (e.g. Koalas).
 maximise corridor width and function by revegetation and control of weeds
and feral animals.
 maximise the protection / linkage of landforms (i.e.. valley floors,
floodplains, gullies, mid-slopes and ridges).
 protecting key habitat resources within corridors such as retention of live and
dead hollow-bearing trees, ground litter resources including rocks and fallen
logs .
 reducing cleared areas within the corridor and constructing fences that allow
for the free movement of wildlife).

20. Few artificial wildlife corridors:
 The Paséo Pantera (also known as the MesoAmerican Biological corridor or
Paséo del Jaguar).
 The Eastern Himalayan Corridor.
 China-Russia Tiger Corridor.
 Tandai Tiger Corridor.
 The European Green Belt.
 The Siju-Rewak Corridor, located in the Garo Hills of India, protects an
important population of elephants.

21. The Siju-Rewak Corridor
This corridor project links together the Siju Wildlife
Sanctuary and the Rewak Reserve Forest in Meghalaya
State, close to the India-Bangladesh border. This area lies
within the meeting place of the Himalayan Mountain
Range and the Indian Peninsula and contains at least 139
other species of mammal, including Tiger, clouded
Leopard and the Himalayan Black Bear.

22. What is particularly important
about the area is that it contains
one of only four crossing points
for elephants along the Simsang
River, the length of which almost
divides the Garo Hills in two.
Elephant Corridor has gentle
sandy beaches on both sides of
the river, where elephants can
cross easily.