Is Protecting Species from Extinction Relevant?

I just heard today that yet another animal species faces impending extinction....the Sumatran Komodo Dragon; the largest lizard in existence. As if the world is going to miss such an ugly leftover from the age of dinosaurs which obviously failed to turn up when God handed out the Death Warrants. Then there's the panda, a completely redundant animal in the whole chain of survival of the fittest and which, ironically is iconized as a symbol representing the World Society for the Protection of Animals.

Animal libbers decry the slaughter and consumption of kangaroos and go up in arms at authorities having to cull koalas which do nothing much except destroy thousands of trees just so they can eat the leaves and spread sexually transmitted diseases. 

Don't get me wrong; I love animals (especially with gravy) but, given that there are somewhere near eighteen thousand new species springing up every year, isn't it ridiculous to intervene with nature and try to save species that need to go or are going anyway?