It depends on what it is being protected against really. We have a very good immune system which is able to stop invading bacteria and fungi before we get ill so we are quite protected in that sense. But animals and plants are protected in lots of ways against other things. For example the naked mole rat (which is so ugly!) never gets cancer, ever. So it is very protected in that sense, so much so that some researchers are trying to understand why this happens. Other animals like salamanders can regrow entire limbs that are lost, so they are protected in that sense.
I think the overall message is that life, in any form is quite fragile, no one species is more protected than another, they’re just better protected from different things.
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