Extirpated

Extirpated refers to the local disappearance of a species from a defined geographic area, while the species continues to exist elsewhere. In ecology, a population is extirpated when it no longer occurs in a region such as a country, state, watershed, or habitat type, even though its global range remains intact. The term is commonly used in conservation to describe regional losses that are not global extinctions.

The word is derived from Latin extirpatus, meaning uprooted or torn out by the roots.

Extirpation can result from multiple pressures, including habitat destruction, overharvesting, disease, invasive species, climate change, and other human disturbances. It highlights that species may persist globally but disappear from particular places, altering local ecosystems and cultural or economic systems that depended on them. Notable historical examples include the extirpation of the gray wolf from much of the contiguous United States in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the near-extirpation of the American bison from eastern North America by the 1800s, with some reintroduction advancing in later years.

Conservation and restoration efforts often aim to prevent extirpation or to reverse it where feasible. Actions may include habitat protection and restoration, legal protection, and reintroduction programs to reestablish populations in areas where the species once occurred. Extirpation differs from global extinction; a species can be locally extinct (extirpated) yet continue to survive in other parts of its range.