With a soft and silky pelage limned by rufous tones, this species lived in the scrub of southwestern and central Australia until at least the 1950s. Extremely timid, the crescent nail-tail wallaby was first observed at length by John Gould in 1840, who chose the specific name lunata (lunar) to describe the animal's crescent markings. In his Mammals of Australia (1863), Gould seems to hint how naturalist specimens of the species, while useful for research, cannot preserve the vitality of the living animal. It is to be regretted that this as well as other Kangaroos lose the delicate tints of their colouring on exposure to light; so much so in the present instance, that Museum and recent specimens could scarcely be considered as identical. Known by settlers as a kangaroo rabbit and as yiwutta in Arrernte, the animal was frequently hunted and trapped by Aboriginal Australians, but declined rapidly after their habitat was impacted by pastoral expansion and through the introduction of European foxes and feral cats. A related species, the bridled nail-tail wallaby is currently under threat, with an estimated wild population of fewer than five hundred creatures.