Question

Is protecting endangered species a good thing?

Answer 1

Yes.

Explanation:

The more species there are in an ecosystem, the greater the biodiversity is.
Every species in an ecosystem plays a role that all the others depend on, even if it is small. If a species becomes extinct, and ecosystem can become unbalanced, even if slightly, it will have an impact that may not be recognised as easily.

For example, if I had an island with bears, seals and fish, the seals eat the fish, the bears eat the seals (it doesn't matter what the fish eats in this instance). If the fish for example became extinct, the seal population would become smaller and so would the bears until the seals either migrate or go extinct, then the bears would go extinct.
This can work in any combination that all species go extinct if one goes extinct. The bears go extinct, the seal population increases, then the fish are all eaten up. The seals go extinct, the bears go extinct and the fish population increases so much that they eat up all what they ate and then the environment cannot support them no more.

You could also say that trees on this island grow because of the nutrients in the bear droppings, if these bears die out, the trees die out, and then we could say birds lived here, they'd die out because there was no nesting material or insects living in tree bark died because they couldn't eat anymore bark.
There is always an impact, even if it may take a long time for it to show.

Even then, people may talk about fluctuating populations in species, such as rabbits breed loads, then fox populations increase and so rabbit population decreases and then the fox population and so on. But if you took the rabbits out, the foxes would go extinct, and if you took the foxes out, the rabbits would breed until all the vegetation is gone and they die out.

This is why protecting endangered species is a good thing, it's also good to note the introduction of species into an environment they are extinct in and how that can benefit it take England, we have no wolves and people have to cull deer so they don't lick all the bark off of trees.

Then you could think about adding a new species, they may wipe out all the other species, like catfish, they eat all the other fish until only they remain, they either die out or have to find other sustenance.

Hope this helps and makes your think. :)