Are the world's most endangered species even worth saving?

Conservationists might not bother rescuing a giant soft-shell turtle or a pygmy three-toed sloth because these animals don't provide any clear benefits to humans

Conservationists release a rare, Red River soft-shell turtle back into a lake, its natural habitat, outside of Hanoi, Vietnam, in 2008.
(Image credit: AP Photo/Tran Van Minh)

How should humans decide which endangered animal species to focus on saving? That's the question being posed by an international coalition of scientists in a new paper documenting 100 of the world's most at-risk species. The scientists fear that these plants and animals are at the greatest risk of extinction because, quite simply, they don't offer any obvious or immediate benefit to humans. Here's what you should know:

Who is behind the report?

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