Overexploitation -the harvest or extraction at a rate that exceeds the ability of populations to recover -is widely recognised as a major threat to biodiversity. Some overexploitation is principally for wildlife trade as distinct from the use of wildlife at a subsistence level. The wildlife trade is frequently highlighted in contemporary conservation science literature and in the press in many parts of the world because of the threat it poses to species. While the extraction of species for the wildlife trade can be unsustainable in some cases, in others it can contribute to the conservation of species, for example, by providing economic incentives to conserve species and their habitats, and provide a range of benefits to local people. This research contributes to a better and clearer understanding of the links between the wildlife trade and the extinction of species by elucidating how these links are characterised in the literature, including proximate threats, "near-extinctions", and indirect drivers of extinction linked to the wildlife trade. The results are based on a review of the literature published in the period 1960-2021 and an examination of available information on Extinct species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The study concludes by providing recommendations on how the extinction of species linked to the harvest, use, and trade of wildlife could be improved in future research.