The last two specimens were collected by Norman Tindale, near Mt Crombie, south of the Musgrave Ranges in northwestern South Australia in July 1933. Tindale (1933) recorded the burning of the stick-nest rats’ nest and the capture of the fleeing inhabitants on his ‘Mann Ranges 1933’ black-and-white film (copies held by the South Australian Museum and by the University of Adelaide). There have been unconfirmed reports since, including one from 1970, and occasional reports of fresh vegetation being added to old stick-nests, but there is little doubt that the species is Extinct.

Collation of available records from a variety of sources (Copley 1999), including the remains of stick nests and subfossil data (e.g., Watts and Eves 1976, Baynes and Johnson 1996, summarised in Copley 1999 and Burbidge et al. 2009) shows that the Lesser Stick-nest Rat formerly ranged though semi-arid and arid Western Australia, South Australia, the Northern Territory, New South Wales and the far northwest of Victoria, although the distribution was probably patchy and dependent on there being suitable vegetation for food.

The distribution of stick-nest rats formed arcs along the southeastern, southern and southwestern boundaries of the arid zone, from western Victoria to North West Cape in Western Australia.  The Lesser Stick-nest Rat occurred further inland from the arid zone boundary, reaching the MacDonnell Ranges and Uluru (Baynes and Baird 1992) and occurring in the Great Victoria and Gibson Deserts, but also extended further southwest, to Peak Charles and probably parts of the Western Australian wheatbelt (A. Baynes pers. comm. 2011).

The species is now Extinct.

Krefft (1866) reported Lesser Stick-nest Rats ‘in great numbers … on both sides of the Murray River’, i.e., New South Wales and Victoria). Many early explorers commented on the abundance and large size of stick-nests, including in northern areas where only this species of Leporillus has been recorded (Copley 1999). However, by the early 20^th century, explorers and naturalists reported that it was rare. Western desert Aboriginal people reported that it disappeared at least 40 to 50 years prior to the mid-1980s (Burbidge et al. 1988). The decline happened from east to west and from south to north (Copley 1999). It is now extinct.

The date this species was last seen in the wild may have been as late as the 1970s, as a large rodent that was captured and released in 1970 in a cave west of the Canning Stock Route, Western Australia, may have been this species (Robinson and Burbidge 2008). Information from the aboriginal population suggest this species persisted up to about 1950 (Robinson 2023).

Stick-nest Rats constructed large nests of sticks and sometimes stones, depending on available construction materials. Some remaining in caves in breakaways in the Gibson Desert and near the Finke stock route in the southern Northern Territory are more than 3 m by 2 m by 1 m high. Stick nests were also built in wooded country well away from ranges, but most have not survived (Burbidge and Fuller 1979, Copley 1999, see Tindale 1933 for black and white film when the last two specimens were collected). There are also historic records of it sheltering in tree hollows (Robinson 2023).

The diet was mainly vegetarian, including leaves of chenopods, other semi-succulent shrubs, seeds and grasses, but also included invertebrates such as beetles and termites (Copley 1999, McDowell et al. 2012). The different food preferences (if not habitat preferences) between the two species of stick-nest rats are reflected in their molar teeth. Although both have incisors that are similar in being relatively narrow and fairly lightly built, their molars are very different. Those of  the Lesser Stick-nest Rat are fairly low-crowned, with quite sloping cusps and with the lophs in the lower molars forming a characteristic chevron pattern, all suggesting that the species fed on relatively high quality food, such as sandalwood nuts (whose shells are usually found in quite large numbers in their stick-nests). In contrast, the molars of the Greater Stick-nest Rat Leporillus conditor are very high-crowned, with almost vertical cusps, suggesting that they fed on larger volumes of lower quality vegetation, such as saltbush, which was fairly abrasive, because old individuals in owl pellet accumulations have quite worn-down teeth (A. Baynes pers. comm. 2011).

The construction of stick-nests shows that shelter was important; the nests probably provided an ameliorated microclimate and some protection from predators. The species was social, with nests sheltering several individuals, with records of up to ten in a nest (Robinson 2023).

Radiocarbon dates of stick-nest rat nest-middens have revealed dates ranging from modern to 10,900 ± 90 BP (Pearson et al. 1999). Pearson and Dodson (1991), Pearson (1999) and Webeck and Pearson (2005) have studied Stick-nest Rat middens to document past changes in vegetation and climate in central Australia, while Pearson et al. (2001) have documented animal remains in the nest-middens.

Predation by feral cats Felis catus is likely to have been the main cause of extinction. Cats had colonised the whole of Australia by the 1890s (Abbott 2002, 2008). The arrival of Red Foxes Vulpes vulpes in its range may have driven remnant subpopulations to extinction; high rabbit numbers led to high fox numbers. Habitat degradation, particularly in refuges during drought, caused by introduced herbivores (mainly rabbits and sheep) before and leading into severe drought conditions may have contributed to extinction. Morton (1990) and Copley (1999) have discussed the effects of introduced herbivores on this and other extinct mammals; Tunbridge (1991) described effects of sheep at the Flinders Ranges. Predation by indigenous predators, such as Dingoes and owls, in combination with habitat degradation by introduced herbivores was probably a minor threat on its own but possibly an enhanced threat when other threats were operating.

This species is extinct.