The
Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby (
Onychogalea lunata) was a
nail-tail wallabyThe nail-tail wallabies are three species of macropod found in Australia. They are distinguished by a horny spur at the end of their tail, and are now generally very rare. Only one species has survived European settlement unscathed: the Crescent Nail-tail is extinct, and the Bridled Nail-tail is...
that lived in the woodlands and scrubs of the west and centre of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. It had silky fur and, like other nail-tail wallabies, had a horny spur at the tip of its tail. It was the size of a hare and was the smallest nail-tail wallaby at about 15 inches tall. When it was chased, it tended to seek refuge in a hollow tree. It entered at the bottom, clambered up and appeared at an opening high above.
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The
Crescent Nail-tail Wallaby (
Onychogalea lunata) was a
nail-tail wallabyThe nail-tail wallabies are three species of macropod found in Australia. They are distinguished by a horny spur at the end of their tail, and are now generally very rare. Only one species has survived European settlement unscathed: the Crescent Nail-tail is extinct, and the Bridled Nail-tail is...
that lived in the woodlands and scrubs of the west and centre of
AustraliaAustralia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the continental mainland , the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans...
. It had silky fur and, like other nail-tail wallabies, had a horny spur at the tip of its tail. It was the size of a hare and was the smallest nail-tail wallaby at about 15 inches tall. When it was chased, it tended to seek refuge in a hollow tree. It entered at the bottom, clambered up and appeared at an opening high above. While running, the species held its forelimbs awkwardly and moved them in a rotary motion.
The
wallabyA wallaby is any of about thirty species of macropod . It is an informal designation generally used for any macropod that is smaller than a kangaroo or wallaroo that has not been given some other name....
remained common, even in agricultural districts in the south-west of
Western AustraliaWestern Australia is a state of Australia, occupying the entire western third of the Australian continent. Australia's largest state and the second largest subnational entity in the world, it has 2.2 million inhabitants , 85% of whom live in the south-west corner of the state.The state's capital...
, until about 1900. It had begun a steep decline by 1908, when the last wallaby was caught in the area. The last specimen of this wallaby to be collected alive was caught in a
dingoThe Dingo is a domestic dog which has reverted to a wild state for thousands of years and today lives largely independent from humans in the majority of its distribution....
trap on the
Nullarbor PlainThe Nullarbor Plain is part of the area of flat, almost treeless, arid or semi-arid country immediately north of the Great Australian Bight. The word Nullarbor is derived from the Latin nullus, "no", and arbor, "tree", and is . It is the world's largest single piece of limestone, and occupies an...
in 1927 or 1928. W.A. Mills sent it to
Taronga ZooTaronga Zoo is the city zoo of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Officially opened on October 7, 1916, it is located on the shores of Sydney Harbour in the suburb of Mosman...
in
SydneySydney is the largest city in Australia, and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney has a metropolitan area population of approximately 4.34 million and an area of approximately 12,000 square kilometres. Its inhabitants are called Sydneysiders, and Sydney is often called "the Harbour City"...
and the animal ended up in the
Australian MuseumThe Australian Museum is the oldest museum in Australia, with an international reputation in the fields of natural history and anthropology. It features collections of vertebrate and invertebrate zoology, as well as mineralogy, palaeontology, and anthropology...
. The species survived in the more arid parts of its distribution until the 1950s, and it is thought that it became extinct at about 1956, probably because of the spread of the
Red FoxThe red fox is a mammal of the order Carnivora. It has the widest range of any terrestrial carnivore, being native to Canada, Alaska, almost all of the contiguous United States, Europe, North Africa and almost all of Asia, including Japan. In Ireland and the UK, where there are no longer any other...
.