What does extinct mean, and how can a species become extinct?

• A. A species that remains abundant in one area.
• B. A species that exists only in captivity.
• C. No living individuals remain; extinction can result from habitat loss, overexploitation, disease, and other threats.
• D. A species that is regularly observed in the wild.

Answer: (C)

Extinct means there are no living individuals anywhere on Earth. A species becomes extinct when all of its members have died and there are no offspring remaining to replace them. This can happen when threats like habitat loss destroy the places they live, overexploitation removes individuals faster than they can reproduce, disease sweeps through a small population, or climate change and invasive species change conditions in ways that the species cannot adapt to. Once a species is extinct, it cannot come back naturally. The other descriptions describe populations that still exist in the wild or only survive in captivity, so they are not extinct.