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Jessica Bryant / Zoological Society of London
The Hainan gibbon, a native of China's Hainan Island, was among the 100 most endangered species cited in a new report. Fewer than 50 of the apes are left.
Priceless or worthless? That's the question posed in a report released Tuesday that lists the 100 most endangered animals, plants and fungi around the globe, as chosen by 8,000 experts for the Zoological Society of London and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The question was raised because the species closest to extinction don't have an obvious economic value to mankind and yet some, especially the experts, would argue for their protection.
"The donor community and conservation movement are leaning increasingly towards a 'what can nature do for us' approach, where species and wild habitats are valued and prioritized according to the services they provide for people," Jonathan Bailie, conservation director at the Zoological Society of London, said in a statement issued with the report.
"This has made it increasingly difficult for conservationists to protect the most threatened species on the planet," he added. "We have an important moral and ethical decision to make: Do these species have a right to survive or do we have a right to drive them to extinction?"
Craig Turner / Zoological Society of London
The pgymy three-toed sloth is native to an island off Panama. Fewer than 500 are thought to be left.
The species are native to 48 countries, but their names don't always shout out "Save me" -- among them the pygmy three-toed sloth (found only on an island off Panama and fewer than 500 are left); the Hainan gibbon (fewer than 20 are left on China's Hainan Island); and the willow blister (a fungi found in Wales).
The report doesn't estimate the cost of saving the 100 species, nor does it rank them, instead listing them alphabetically by their scientific name -- starting with Astrochelys yniphora, or ploughshare tortoise.
"Having narrowly survived hunting pressure and habitat destruction by fire in the past, this species’ good looks may be its ultimate downfall as illegal collection for the international pet trade is likely to push it to extinction in the wild in the near future," the report states.
The Japanese otter was declared extinct today by the Japanese government after not being spotted for over 30 years. NBCNews.com's Richard Lui reports.
Fewer than 770 ploughshare tortoise are thought to survive in the wild of their native Madagascar.
The experts noted that the 100 species chosen are just a fraction of the thousands of species that also face extinction, just perhaps not as soon.
"The future of many species is going to depend on reconciling the needs of people and nature, and ensuring economic development and conservation do not undermine each other," Simon Stuart, chair of the IUCN's species survival commission, said in a foreword to the report.
"If we ignore the question" about priceless or worthless, he added, "we shall be inadvertently accepting the ethical position that human-caused mass extinction is acceptable."
The World Wildlife Fund framed the issue slightly differently.
"Ideally, we would try and save every species on the planet because everything in nature is connected and so are the solutions to environmental problems," Sybille Klenzendorf, WWF's species conservation director, told NBC News. "However, since saving every single species would be an enormous undertaking, we must focus our efforts on conserving nature as a whole.
"For WWF, that means working on what we call umbrella species like tigers, elephants and rhinos," she added. "By focusing on conservation of those species, we’re also aiming to protect other species that share their habitat -- or are vulnerable to the same threats."
Cristian Samper, head of the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society, agreed on that approach.
"We won't be able to save every species, but if we are smart we can save many of them," Samper said. "We focus on places where you have many species and big threats."
"In extreme cases," Samper said, "we will save species in zoos and aquariums and then reintroduce them, like we did at the WCS Bronx Zoo with the American bison a hundred years ago and we are doing that now with turtles and frogs today."
Galapagos tortoise Lonesome George has died. The only remaining Pinta Island giant tortoise-believed to be the last of his species- was believed to be about 100 years old. ITV's Annabel Roberts reports.Â
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Can't we add the US tax payers to the list. Are THEY worth saving. Let's ask Obama and the liberal left.
Taxes are currently the lowest they have been in over 70 years.
While many tax rates are low the fact is there are more and more taxes taking a bigger and bigger bite of the average persons paycheck.While individual income tax rates were lowered ,deductions a person/family could take have been reduced or eliminated resulting in a net neutral impact, They were trade offs.
I remember when NJ did not have a sales tax or and income tax, When they were introduced they were both temporary taxes to offset shortages, Well they have been permanent for decades now and they keep going up, There are more and more taxes on just about everything a person purchases so taxes are not at a 70 year low, They are at a 70 year high
Because we are smart enough to know the damage it can cause, because we have technology to acknowledge we are moving a species towards extinction instead of just hunting it until they don't exist anymore and then panicking and wondering what happened.
as long as we are saving things, what about saving the UNITED STATES from the illegal alien muslim that is living in my whitehouse and trying to destroy the united states legally, as he puts it??? i would think that this would rank very high in the most endangered top 100?????
Personal political fantasy vendettas are not relevant to this article.
BrentAZ, better a fool than an idiot.
Profound.
OK...thats it, In order to save all of these creatures from going extinct man must stop using any medications that control disease, We must not have any operations that would save us from death, We must not eat healthy . Obamas affordable care act is going to cause a lot of beautiful animals to go extinct so it must be repealed.
I keep hearing all of you idiots talking about man being the evil demon responsible for the down fall of the planet, here is your chance to do your part...Suicide by feeding yourself to a tiger or ploar bear or a shark or just commit suicide and let the vultures and maggots eat you.
Human life is more important than animal life so get over it.
I love my dogs but if things get real bad then I am gong to be eating dog steaks and wearing a nice dog skin coat.
We shouldn't have to make that choice.
Everything in life requires a choice, You can not go thru life without choosing to do something, Even not choosing means you have chosen not to do it.
Any of the animals that is dying out because of nature then let “survival of the fit is” play its
hand, bit if the animals are dying off because of the actions of humans, then
we need to do something about it.
Yes, your post is meaningful.
Brenta$$----so you hung around the conversation table for what?....and you added what? Smart$$ remarks that contibuted nothing, but a pain in the,,,,,,,,.But, You have a right to be here, so be it and the right to be cared for if it thought that you might go extinct and so does all that is here with us, that includes animals, critters of all kinds,,,,why? because they are here with us! That would be our charge whilst we are around to be of service or help to any living thing that might need help in order to survive....Sound fair to you??Hope so,,You never know what is in your or anyones future...So we really need to avail ourselves to any and all living entities that may need help in order to survive and continue to propagate for all of our futures...Sorry BrentAZ I sort of hung you out to dry but I or no-one would let you die till your time. After all we would want you to have the chance to pass your genes on as the rest of Us,,,,,anyway thats my opinion on life and continued existance FOR ALL,,,,,,,,,,ZZAR
You see here is the reason why sane people don't take eco-tards seriously.
Just because I support ensuring that we do a cost-benefit analysis of saving animal X, I am brandished as wanting to kill species. This is not the case, in fact I think there is plenty to be said for doing what we can to keep this world clean and the animals that are living in it, alive.
However, there are many examples of where the eco-tards have taken over. The case of the Delta Smelt is a great example. This fish serves ZERO purpose and its possible extinction doesn't bother me and shouldn't both anyone, given the high costs associated with the policies to protect said fish. The results of these law are high unemployment in the region and increased food prices throughout the world. Increasing food prices (which also results from overly restrictive energy policies) causes famine thoughout the third world. It is unfair to the poor in this world to starve them, because we want to save the Delta Smelt from POTENTIALLY going extinct.
The biggest problem is the more extinct the animal is it is usually
the case of the most flavorful ones.
Actually the best thing you can do to ensure that an animal survives is to make it delicious. No one will want it extinct then.
Ranchers inTexas have saved several african species from extinction in the wild and have increased their populations enough so that they can be reintroduced back into the wild in Africa , To do this these Texas ranchers need to make money to cover those costs, Peta-tards and Enviro-nazis are fighting tooth and nail to stop these ranchers from having controlled hunts/safaris during which hunters pay money to hunt some of these animals, They want federal laws banning this, When this happens these ranchers will no longer be able to afford to raise these animals so eventually these animals will die in the wild, You will only be able to see them in zoo's and when all the ones in the zoos have died then you will only see them in books.
Well said Brent and you are absolutely correct! without some kind of contol on the extremist side of things,,they will destroy mankind in the name of their own agendas. I hope I haven't offended you or your right to an opinion.....It is a very explosive subject and Mankind is hard pressed to do the right thing and sometimes the extreme brings us back a bit in sanity on what, why and whatever are we here to accomplish as Human Beings,,,,,I digress back to where I belong,,,,quiet solitude....ZZAR
BrentAZ: You are a real character,,,take care Bud LMFAO....sometimes it just feels good..ZZAR
This just in ..............da Most Endangered Species is da Republcian TeaBilly Consesevative Whack Job.
They are all suffering from "Todd Akins" Disease.............LOL.
You BetCha.....Fer Sure.
Actaully it's the Obama family.
These idiots who believe that no expense should be spared to save every endangered species have a basic theology: "Correct nature at all costs."
Extinction is natural. Human Beings will eventually become extinct. All dinosaurs are extinct. Most animals and plants that ever lived, have become extinct.
There have been nine different species of humans and eight have gone extinct.
The issue here is all expense versus living with nature and not trying to correct it.
(Are they worth saving) This is has to be one of the most retarded, dumbest, inbreed, self centered questions ever asked....to date. Reason being, Today on Potus Politics, they talked about a tree frog that secretes a chemical thur it's skin that can block the spread of HIV. Of course the frogs numbers are dwindling fast so the clock is ticking. But the idea of funding to protect and help the frog that could possibly lead to a cure for HIV seems to be a no-brainer?????!!!!!! At least you would think that. Yet, there are those who control the funding for such research think otherwise, thus catering to a "God Like Ego Complex" that seems to be more of disese now, than a mental state of mind. What really needs to happen is a control on population growth. It's rather simple. There is only so much food, so much water, so much land, and when push comes to shove, we seem to somehow come up with some self centered moral justification to let the extinction happen. What makes us "Human", what defines us as being the most intelligent being on the planet? Who are we to decide what animals stay, and which ones should die off? All life is equal, and all life can be protected, and in the case of this one tiny tree frog, a life could be saved. Not just the frogs, but us as well.
Endangered species? The middle-class in the United States, especially if Romney is voted in as President, or twists the arms of the Supreme Court justices to do a GW Bush 2000 on this country. Then this country is cooked. One very rich class and one very poor class does not make for a very stable economic situation.
To be redundant, yes when need to preserve these animals and plants for future generations, hopefully future generations will be smarter than us.
why don't we just let nature take its course, we can't save everything so lets work on saving the animals that are the strongest and have the best chance of living in this world..the most adaptable animals are the ones that survive the longest, sharks, cockroaches and alligators to mention a few, humans have only been around a short time compaired to them a minute or two....when we are around as long as they have been maybe we will be smart enough to save the world
Sorry to burst your bubble but the most endangered species is mankind.
Were not nearly as smart as we think.
We as Americans are in danger as well. Does anyone out there G.A.S.
Republicans MUST be on this endangered species list, and no, they aren't worth saving!
We humans are the parasites of this earth. We will eventually cause our own demise and therefore our own extinction. We will deplete this great planet of all it's natural resources and probably cause the extinction of many plants and animals that otherwise would be fine. When will we as a species GET IT? We are the problem!