16/05/2026
The distinction of a species being “endangered” is both necessary and problematic. If we accept that species should not be eradicated from existence by humans, then recognising which species are at particular risk makes complete sense. We might easily be living in a world without mountain gorillas; only the realisation of how few individuals were left almost half a century ago led to the intense conservation efforts that saved them from extinctions
The problem with the distinction isn’t for the endangered species, but the ones whose numbers have not yet hit rock bottom. Consider that of Africa’s largest predators - lions, leopards, crocodiles, cheetahs, spotted hyenas, wild dogs, and rock pythons - only one is classified as endangered (though the big cats are all considered ‘vulnerable’). If they disappear from a specific area, it may not threaten the overall status of the species, but that doesn’t make it any less catastrophic; the loss of any keystone species, or group of species, has immense knock-on effects on the rest of the ecosystem. So, while it’s important to know if a species is on the brink of extinction, this not being the case doesn’t necessarily make things any better.
The second issue isn’t conservation-related, but ethical. While humans care about the survival or disappearance of species, that’s unlikely to be on the mind of anyone else. Every animal on the planet wants to stay alive. Is the killing of a western lowland gorilla somehow less tragic or important than the killing of a mountain gorilla, just because there are more of them? Does the caged chicken or the cow whose calf was forcibly removed from her gain comfort from the fact that their species, strictly speaking, are thriving? A life, surely, is a life. Make the equivalent argument about humans, and its pitfalls are apparent: is my life worth more than that of someone from the US, India, or China just because there are far fewer Swedes in the world?
I’m not suggesting that we should care less about endangered species, or that preventing them from disappearing isn’t immensely important. Only that not belonging to an endangered species doesn’t make a life less precious.
