Mainly active at night, resting in dusty scrapes under shrubs, feeding on cool wet days. Groups of 2-10 occupy a home range of 8 square kms. This area increases in droughts when mobs of several hundred may gather around scarce resources. Males congregate around females in heat and establish dominance hierarchies by boxing, with the largest males having exclusive mating rights. Young males range widely and old males become solitary. When threatened they make a loud cough and thump their hindfeet, hopping quickly away with the body and tail horizontal.

Males are sexually mature at 2-3 years, females at 15-20 months, living up to 20 years. They breed all year round in good years, mating soon after birth, the embryo remaining dormant until the pouch is vacated. After a pregnancy of 32-34 days the newborn attaches firmly to one of 4 teats in the mother's pouch, which it leaves by 9 months, suckling at foot for a further 3 months.

This large, strong marsupial is reddish-brown above and paler below. A broad white stripe runs along the cheek, the muzzle has black and white markings with a partially bare tip. The hind feet have no first digit, the second and third are joined with a double claw and the fourth is much longer than the others.