Sitatunga occur in tall and dense vegetation of perennial and seasonal swamps, marshy clearings within forests, riverine thickets, and mangrove swamps. In savanna environments, they are typically found in extensive monospecific stands of papyrus Cyperus papyrus and the reeds Phragmites spp. and Echinochloa pyramidalis (May and Lindholm 2013). Sitatunga usually avoid open water devoid of vegetation. They are selective mixed feeders taking a range of grasses, sedges and browse (May and Lindholm 2013). Sitatunga coexist with the Nile Lechwe in the Sudd of South Sudan, and with Southern Lechwe in Zambia, Botswana, and Angola.

The Sitatunga probably occurred formerly alongside waterways throughout the lowland forest zone of West and Central Africa, extending into swamp systems in the savanna zones of Central, East and southern Africa. It is now rare and localized in West Africa, with a very small range in Senegal, Gambia, Guinea and Guinea-Bissau. It may have once occurred more widely in this part of West Africa. It remains widespread elsewhere, from southern Ghana and Benin through the Congo Basin forests and in swamp systems within the savannas of Central, East and southern Africa as far as the Okavango. Long extinct in Niger and probably now also in Togo, but have been confirmed as still surviving in Ghana (May and Lindholm 2013).

About 40% of the population survives in and around protected areas (East 1999), with major, generally stable populations occurring in Dja and Lobeke (Cameroon), Bangassou (Central African Republic), Odzala N.P. and L. Tele-Likouala (Republic of Congo), Salongo N.P. (DR Congo), Bangweulu and Busanga Swamps (Zambia), Okavango Delta (Botswana), and Akagera N.P. (Rwanda) (East 1999, May and Lindholm 2013). At present, only a few of these areas receive moderate-high levels of protection and management. The current survival of good Sitatunga populations in other areas, such as Lobeke, Bangweulu and Okavango, is a product of low human population densities rather than active conservation (East 1999).

The large areas of swamp within the Okavango Delta currently provide the Sitatunga with a safe refuge (from hunting in particular) to persist in. They should continue to do so, as long as the ecology of the Delta is not altered significantly by factors such as cattle grazing within the swampland, uncontrolled burning, overhunting and hydrological schemes that would affect the water levels in the perennial or seasonal swamps. Moremi Game Reserve contains a limited area of permanent swamp with moderate numbers of Sitatunga, but proposals to incorporate the Xo Flats within this reserve would significantly increase the protected population of this antelope (East 1999). The species’ significance as a trophy animal is an important economic incentive for the conservation of its habitat, and hunting zones adjoining national parks and equivalent reserves have the potential to play an increasingly important role in the conservation of the Sitatunga (East 1999).