In their critique of our call to save the world’s terrestrial megafauna (Ripple et al. 2016), Ford et al. argue that we undermine broader efforts to conserve biodiversity. Their main arguments are that (1) megafauna conservation does not conserve other species; (2) megafauna already receives enough attention; (3) megafauna does not play a compelling enough ecological role to justify increased conservation efforts; (4) megafauna conservation is counterproductive by taking too big a share of conservation resources; and (5) megafauna is less imperiled than other species and over-shadows their declines.

Here we acknowledge that all aspects of biodiversity are important and that efforts to conserve megafauna are unlikely to be enough in isolation to conserve all species. We agree with Ford et al. that stronger and varied conservation approaches are necessary to conserve the earth’s biodiversity. However, we deem it necessary to respond to Ford et al.’s critique by highlighting several important factors for consideration