how do we determine a species has gone extinct? You’re telling me you looked EVERYWHERE?
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The rules have changed over the years… today the world conservation union will only label a species extinct if “there’s no reasonable doubt the last animal has died”…
Usually multiple years of surveying the known areas the animals are/were in turning up no sightings/evidence of them around… this Is imperfect like you say, but works well enough for lots of animals (it’s easy to notice if a rhino is not around a few available watering holes, but hard to notice a specific woodpecker isn’t visiting the same jungle trees)
They can also say it if an animals known habitat gets destroyed, but only if they can also prove the animal wouldn’t be able to survive somewhere else
The fish and wildlife service is charged with checking up on animals on the endangered list every so often so there’s tabs being kept
Sometimes animals re-emerge from extinction
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