Bias towards legally protecting and prioritizing charismatic taxonomic groups such as mammals and birds, and against others such as insects and plants, has been well-documented. However, the relative costs of conserving various taxonomic groups, and the potential of these costs to interact with existing biases, have been much less explored. Here, we analyze conservation programs across more than 2,000 species in 3 countries, to investigate the costs of conserving species within taxonomic groups, and how these costs might affect conservation planning. Although the costs for individual species vary widely, there are strong international consistencies. For example, mammals cost 8-26 times more on average to conserve than plants, and 13-19 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. On average, bird species cost 5-30 times more to conserve than plants, and 6-14 times more to conserve than aquatic invertebrates. These cost differences could exacerbate unequal resource allocation among taxonomic groups, such that more charismatic groups both receive more attention and require more resources, leading to neglect of other taxonomic groups. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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跨分类群保护受威胁物种的相对成本

偏向于合法保护和优先考虑具有魅力的分类群（例如哺乳动物和鸟类），以及针对其他物种（例如昆虫和植物）的偏见已得到充分证明。然而，保护各种分类群的相对成本，以及这些成本与现有偏见相互作用的潜力，很少被探索。在这里，我们分析了 3 个国家/地区 2,000 多个物种的保护计划，以调查在分类群内保护物种的成本，以及这些成本可能如何影响保护计划。尽管单个物种的成本差异很大，但具有很强的国际一致性。例如，哺乳动物的平均保护成本是植物的 8-26 倍，是水生无脊椎动物的 13-19 倍。一般，鸟类物种的保护成本是植物的 5-30 倍，是水生无脊椎动物的 6-14 倍。这些成本差异可能会加剧分类群之间的资源分配不平等，从而使更具魅力的群体受到更多关注并需要更多资源，从而导致对其他分类群的忽视。本文受版权保护。版权所有。