The last confirmed record of the Desert Rat-kangaroo came in 1935 from near Ooroowilanie, east of Lake Eyre. There have been unconfirmed sightings in South Australia and Queensland between 1957 and 2013 (Carr and Robinson 1997, Robinson and Forrest 2013, Vernes et al. 2021), but recent extensive and targeted searches have reported no definitive evidence that it persists. The species is Extinct.

Originally recorded from a small region in the Channel Country of north-eastern South Australia; the Desert Rat-kangaroo probably occurred also in adjacent south-eastern Queensland (Finlayson 1932, 1935; Flannery 1990; Carr and Robinson 1997; Flannery and Schouten 2001; Smith and Johnson 2008). The Desert Rat-kangaroo was discovered in the early 1840s and described by John Gould in 1843, on the basis of three specimens sent to him by George Grey, the governor of South Australia at the time, from an unknown locality in that State. After a long period (almost 90 years) with no records, the animal was rediscovered by pastoralist Mr L. Reese of Appamunna Station in 1931. Mammalogist Hedley Finlayson visited the site of Reese’s rediscovery in December 1931 and spent a week with six horsemen riding over an area of ‘about 20 square miles’ seeing 17 Desert Rat-kangaroos and catching 12 specimens (Finlayson 1932a, b, 1935; Robinson and Forest 2013).

More recent information suggests it occurred as far east as Galway Downs, north to Windorah, and west to the northern extremity of Lake Eyre. Carr and Robinson (1997) documented 13 unconfirmed sightings of animals thought to be the Desert Rat-kangaroo between 1957 and 1988. Since then there have been at least three additional unconfirmed sightings; a daytime flushing in 1992 or 1993 of an animal near Goyder Lagoon just north of the site of the 1931 population (Vernes et al. 2021), a night-time sighting at The Peake Station on the Oodnadatta Track in May 2011, and a brief night-time sighting at Half-way Grid in 2013 (Vernes et al. 2021). The Peake Station sighting was followed up in August 2011 and although an old nest with some dried scats was found, DNA could not be isolated from the scats, so the sighting could not be confirmed (Robinson and Forrest 2013). Vernes et al. (2021) reported on a targeted survey of all previous locations and other potential sites in 2018 and 2019 using more than 6000 camera-tarp nights, analyses of contents of 536 predator scats and 226 kilometres of spotlight searches, without success. However, they cautioned that ‘because of the vastness and inaccessibility of much of the terrain comprising the supposed distribution of C. campestris, we do not see our null result as definitive for this poorly surveyed animal.’

Vernes et al. (2019) reported an overlooked early specimen collected at Lake Killalpaninna in South Australia between 1902 and 1905; the most southerly recorded. Furthermore, it precedes Hedley Herbert Finlayson’s rediscovery of the Desert Rat-kangaroo in 1931 by more than 25 years.

The Desert Rat-kangaroo is presumed to be extinct. It was locally common near Cooncherie in December 1931 (Finlayson 1932a, b, 1935); no other information is available on population size. Targeted surveys in 2011 and 2018-19 produced no definitive evidence that it still exists (Robinson and Forrest 2013, Vernes et al. 2021).

Gould (1843) noted the specimens he received were taken from the 'stony and sandy plains of South Australia'. Finlayson (1932) reported that his specimens came from sand dune and gibber plain country with scattered saltbush Atriplex spp. and scattered corkwoods (probably Hakea divaricata). He described a ‘flimsy’ nest made from grass and leaves in a shallow depression scratched from loam, where it sheltered during the daytime. Carr and Robinson (1997) stated that claypans, gibber plains and sand ridges were distinctive features of the habitat in the stony transition zone between true gibber plain and loamy flats where the sparse vegetation included saltbush, other chenopods, emu bush Eremophila spp. and, rarely, a clump of stunted corkwood. There are no data on reproduction.

Extinction is likely to have been due to predation by introduced Red Foxes Vulpes vulpes and feral Cats Felis catus (Woinarski et al. 2014). Habitat degradation by introduced herbivores may have contributed to the extinction.

It is listed on CITES Appendix I.