Wildlife corridors are a key component of wider ecological networks, connecting core wildlife areas and stepping stone habitats. They enable species to move, disperse, migrate and reproduce. They can be canals, rivers, pathways with flowers, shrubs and bushes alongside them, or even a forest between two areas of grassland. In visual terms, sometimes it’s helpful to think of a wildlife corridor as the pole in between two barbell weights (the two core wildlife areas at either end of the corridor).

Wildlife corridors, in their most natural form, are a very positive part of the global ecological network, enabling birds, insects, mammals and amphibians to continue to thrive. Depending on what they consist of, a wildlife corridor will be favourable to certain species. Originally, natural wildlife corridors were a means of ensuring species could survive and thrive and biodiversity could be sustained.

In the modern world, as urban areas grow ever larger and often amalgamate, wildlife corridors can come to be the dual carriageway going from one side of a large urban area to the other, or an underground train line. Nowadays even a plane travelling between two destinations in different countries can act as a wildlife corridor in some ways.

The newer urban wildlife corridors being created (which often include metal, plastic, concrete, tarmac travel channels and the human or animal bodies using them) tend to favour species which like to live on humans and the animals which can withstand such man-made environments – rats, mice and so on. These species therefore tend to be things like parasites and pests. Just as in natural wildlife corridors, these species move, disperse, migrate and reproduce by travelling along the urban wildlife corridors. Unfortunately, this can mean an increase in problematic species, pests, parasites and thus pathogens and diseases.

It is therefore important that people are aware of what a wildlife corridor is and does. It is essential that natural wildlife corridors are maintained, and even recreated where they have been lost. This is to ensure that species which are useful for pollination and the sustaining of constructive biodiversity can be helped to thrive.

Creating a wildlife corridor could be as simple as allowing bits of greenery to appear along the side of a road between a park and a field. Or it could involve making sure there are plants and flowers around the pathway from the front garden of a house to the back garden. Ensuring green spaces are plentiful and appear throughout urban areas is also vital. This helps to provide a corridor between the core wildlife areas on either side of a a town or city.