The Kinkajou is a medium-sized member of the family Procyonidae common throughout most Neotropical forests (Ford and Hoffmann 1988). It has nocturnal and arboreal habits and requires closed-canopy forest such as that found in Central America and the Amazon basin. It is found in rain forests in Surinam, Mexico, and Peru (Estrada and Coates-Estrada 1985, Husson 1978, Janson et al. 1981), tropical evergreen forests in Mexico and Venezuela (Leopold 1959, Handley 1976), tropical dry forest in Guatemala (Walker and Cant 1977), forests of the savanna region in Surinam (Husson 1978), secondary forest in French Guiana (Charles-Dominique et al. 1981), and the Amazonian rain forest, Atlantic coastal forest, and evergreen gallery forests of the Cerrado in Brazil (Redford and da Fonseca 1986). South and east of its range, the habitat becomes much drier and more open. Kinkajou is not found in these regions.

The species is found at altitudes from sea level to as high as 2,500 m (Grzimek 1975). Many studies (Charles-Dominique et al. 1981, Bisbal 1986, Julien-Laferrière 1999, Kays 1999) on Kinkajou diet reveal that it eats primarily fruit, and supplements its diet with flowers and leaves. Charles-Dominique et al. (1981) stated that Kinkajous play an important role in dispersing the seeds of some plant species. Kinkajou social organisation has been defined as 'solitary group-life' (Kays and Gittleman 2001). Although Kinkajous spend most of their active time alone, individuals regularly associated in groups of up to five individuals (Kays and Gittleman 2001) while feeding in fruit trees. Camera-trap avoidance behaviour has been documented in Costa Rica (Schipper 2007).

The Kinkajou is found throughout the Neotropics, from Mexico to Bolivia. Its range extends from Mexico to the east and south of the Sierras Madre, along the central and southern Mexican coasts, southward through Beni, Bolivia (east of the Andes), and deep into Brazil (into the Mato Grosso).

Kinkajou is found in numerous protected areas throughout its range and it is protected under CITES Appendix III in Honduras.