What is population fragmentation?

Question

I'm currently working on an endangered species powerpoint, and online it said that one of the reasons why the Bengal tiger is endangered, is because of population fragmentation. I've looked everywhere, and I still don't understand exactly what IS population fragmentation! Could anyone please give me a definition?

Answer 1

Fragmentation is when a species habitat is broken into pieces.  So the habitat is separated into different fragments.  This is a bad thing because it cuts habit size down for a population of a species which reduces the amount of resources it has.  An example of habitat fragmentation is the building of a road through a forest.

Answer 2

it describes the emergence of discontinuities (fragmentation) in an organism's preferred environment (habitat)