biology

Lesser stick-nest rat

Lesser stick-nest rat is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Lesser stick-nest rat rather than just read about it. In short: The lesser stick-nest rat or white-tipped stick-nest rat (Leporillus apicalis) is an extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae. It lived in central Australia where it built nests of sticks that accumulate over years and can become very large.

Key takeaways

Lesser stick-nest rat belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Lesser stick-nest rat to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Lesser stick-nest rat from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The lesser stick-nest rat or white-tipped stick-nest rat (Leporillus apicalis) is an extinct species of rodent in the family Muridae. It lived in central Australia where it built nests of sticks that accumulate over years and can become very large. The last confirmed sighting of this rat was in 1933 although there is a credible report of a sighting in 1970. In 2008, the International Union for Conservation of Nature listed it as "critically endangered", suggesting that it may yet survive in remote areas of unsurveyed territory, but revised its evaluation to "extinct" again in 2016, based on an assessment in 2012.

Behaviour It accumulated large mounds of sticks to construct its nests, which were up to three metres long and a metre high. It was easily tamed, sometimes climbing onto tables to get sugar. It was also eaten by people. The last capture was filmed on 18 July 1933, when the stick-nests were set alight. The specimens are held in the South Australian Museum. The rat may have declined from competition with cattle and sheep. The reduction in available food sources also caused them to be more vulnerable to predators like owls. There is a possibility that a lesser stick-nest rat was seen in a cave in Western Australia in 1970. The last specimen was found at Mount Crombie. Gerard Krefft in 1862 wrote that he encountered the species in Euston, Bourke, and on both sides of the Murray and on the Darling. He could dislodge up to 15 individuals from a single tree and kept a large number of them in captivity. They were tame enough that any that escaped came back to join him for supper, "and help[ed] themselves, to damper especially". On a similar note, he also wrote that they themselves had "flesh white, tender, and well-tasted". Krefft tried to keep lesser-stick nest rats in a box with greater-stick nest rats but found that they kept fighting and that the former always remained victorious.

Conservation status assessment The 2008 release of the updated IUCN status for the lesser stick-nest rat downgraded the conservation status from extinct to critically endangered (possibly extinct), owing to the very slight possibility that a very small population may still exist in yet to be surveyed remote lands of the Australian interior. This was based on a reliable record from 1970, continued occasional reports of fresh vegetation being added to old stick-nests, and much of this species' range being in remote portions of central Australia which have not yet been fully surveyed. However, the classification was revised to "extinct" again in 2016.

References

External sources Flannery, Tim; Schouten, Peter (2001). A Gap in Nature: Discovering the World's Extinct Animals. Atlantic Monthly Press, New York. ISBN 978-0-87113-797-5.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Lesser stick-nest rat

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Lesser stick-nest rat claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Lesser stick-nest rat before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Lesser stick-nest rat ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Lesser stick-nest rat

In research: Lesser stick-nest rat appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Lesser stick-nest rat in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Lesser stick-nest rat is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Extinct mammals of Australia, Extinct mammals of South Australia, IUCN Red List extinct species, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Lesser stick-nest rat outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Lesser stick-nest rat in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Lesser stick-nest rat means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Lesser stick-nest rat out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Lesser stick-nest rat in simple terms?

Why does Lesser stick-nest rat matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Lesser stick-nest rat?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Lesser stick-nest rat.