 Heath rats were presumed to be totally extinct for a period of thirty years, following Australia's mammalian faunal collapse, and not recorded in surveys after a 1931 collection in southwest Australia.These specimens were supplied to the Western Australian Museum by Joyce Savage of Buniche, after their recent capture by her domestic cats, at a location adjacent to the Harris Nature Reserve in the southeast of the Wheatbelt.The record of living species in the state was previously suspected from evidence in owl droppings, the fragments of several individuals in an old deposit then seemingly fresh bones in a second sample.