How are scientists able to say that a random species is extinct? Did they have to look everywhere?
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Short answer is no they don’t. It’s an assumption made when they can’t find evidence of modern encounters.
“Extinct” species are occasionally rediscovered in the wild. There’s also the long-standing issue that the distinction of what constitutes a “species” is more or less arbitrary.
e.g. historically one of the main tests for a “species” is genetic isolation, but to make the example gene-flow between domesticated dogs, Coyotes, and Wolves is quite free to the point that almost all wild coyotes/wolves have some mixed fraction of ancestry between the two species. Morphological distinctions to define species are also arbitrarily applied, to use the dog example again, the gap between a Labrador and a French Bulldog is bigger than many species gaps.
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