A species is declared extinct when its final survivor passes away.

Therefore, extinction becomes

inevitable when no living creatures are left to procreate and pass on new life. When just a small
number of individuals remain and are unable to reproduce owing to ill health, advanced age,
sparse distribution across a wide area, a dearth of both sexes (in sexually reproducing species),
or other factors, a species may be considered functionally extinct.

A precise characterization of the species is necessary to identify its extinction (or

pseudoextinction). The species in issue must be uniquely distinct from any ancestor or daughter
species as well as from any other closely related species in order to be declared extinct. The
punctuated equilibrium hypothesis of Stephen Jay Gould and Niles Eldredge places a lot of
emphasis on the extinction of a species (or its replacement by a daughter species).

In ecology, the term "extinction" is occasionally used colloquially to describe "local extinction,"
in which a species disappears from the research region while continuing to exist elsewhere.
Reintroducing members of that species from other areas can stop local extinctions; the
reintroduction of wolves is one example of this. Extant refers to species that are not completely
extinct. Threatened or endangered species are those that are currently existing but are in risk of
going extinct.

Currently, human efforts to protect severely endangered species are a significant factor in the
extinction crisis. The designation of "extinct in the wild" as a conservation status reflects this
(EW). The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has classified some species as
having this status if there are no known living examples of those species in the wild and they
are only kept alive in zoos or other artificial settings. Since they are no longer a part of their
native environment and it is doubtful that they will ever be brought back into the wild, several
of these species are technically extinct.