Conservation Status: Extinct (EX)

This is the most definite and final category. When a species is labeled Extinct, it means scientists are 100% sure that the very last individual of that species has died. There are no more of these animals, plants, or fungi left on Earth, either in the wild or in zoos, aquariums, or other protected places.

Think of it as a permanent goodbye. To declare a species extinct, experts have to search exhaustively in all the places it used to live, at all the right times of year, and still find absolutely nothing. This is a sad but necessary label that helps us understand the irreversible loss of biodiversity.

A famous example is the Dodo bird, which disappeared hundreds of years ago.