This species inhabits lowland rainforests and is also tolerant of disturbed habitats. It has been collected in flood plains and has been observed in arboreal situations up to 6 m above the ground (e.g. Chan et al. 2009), usually in muddy tree-holes (M. Munir and M. Kusrini pers. comm. May 2017). It is an explosive breeder and is known to breed at the beginning of the rainy season. Tadpoles do not feed and develop rapidly.

This species is a complex which is provisionally regarded as being distributed throughout Malaysia (including Sabah, Sarawak), Brunei Darussalam (Das and Kraus 2007), central and western Indonesia (Nias, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Java, Madura, Bali, Lombok, Sumbawa, Flores, Timor, Sulawesi, Kabaena, Muna, Butung, Wowoni and Sumba [R. Eprilurahman iNaturalist obs. 2015]), Phuket Island in Thailand and Palawan and Tawi-Tawi Islands in the Philippines. It has been recorded up to 800 m asl, There is a possibly isolated subpopulation near Tak in western Thailand. The subpopulations endemic to Little Andaman and South Andaman Islands, India have now been separated as Kaloula ghoshi  (Chandramouli and Prasad 2018). This species complex is still unresolved and subpopulations from southern Peninsular Malaysia, Borneo, Sulawesi, Timor-Leste and Palawan are thought to be distinct, separate species yet to be described and named (Chan et al. 2013, Chan et al. 2014). Kaloula baleata sensu stricto is only known with certainty from Java and all other subpopulations require verification (Chan et al. 2014, M. Munir pers. comm. May 2017). Until this has been resolved, all records are retained in the distribution map but are coded as 'Presence Uncertain' apart from Java.

Following morphological analysis, subpopulations from southern Viet Nam through eastern Cambodia to central Lao People's Democratic Republic that were previously thought to belong to this species have now be assigned to Kaloula indochinensis (Chan et al. 2013). As a result, these records has been removed from the distribution map. In addition, a subpopulation from Gubir, Kedah in Peninsular Malaysia has now been assigned to Kaloula latidisca following genetic and morphological analysis (Chan et al. 2014).

Conservation Actions In-Place
Its range sensu lato includes several protected areas, two of which are Lore Lindu National Park on Sulawesi (Wanger et al. 2011) and Kerinci Seblat National Park in Sumatra (Kurniati 2008). These records there require confirmation that they belong to this species. 

Research Needed
Taxonomic research is required to fully resolve this species complex. It is specifically required to verify the identity of the subpopulations on Sumatra, Kalimantan, the Lesser Sunda Islands and Timor (M. Munir pers. comm. May 2017).