Throughout its range, Small-toothed Palm Civet seems to have been recorded almost solely in evergreen biomes, with most records from evergreen and semi-evergreen forest, including degraded areas provided some contiguity of canopy remains (e.g. Payne et al. 1985, Duckworth 1997a, Duckworth et al. 1999, Walston and Duckworth 2003, Borissenko et al. 2004, Wells et al. 2005, Holden 2006, Long and Minh 2006, Belden et al. 2007, Duckworth and Nettelbeck 2008, Eaton et al. 2010, Low 2011, Moore 2011, Chua et al. 2012, Willcox et al. 2012, Naniwadekar et al. 2013, Kakati and Srikant 2014, Murali et al. 2014, Raman & Zakhuma 2014, Chutipong et al. 2014a). Woodland dominated by non-native planted trees is used, at least in Java (Moore and Wihermanto 2014) and it has been spotlit near an active Melaleuca plantation in U Minh, Viet Nam, in a fruiting tree (Willcox et al. 2012). There are a handful of records from mostly deciduous landscapes, but even there the exact location of most of them is within or right beside evergreen forest, such as a sighting in riverine forest bordering deciduous dipterocarp forest in Western Siem Pang district, Stung Treng province, Cambodia (D.H.A. Wilcox in litt. to Gray et al. 2014) and multiple records in Thung Yai Naresuan Wildlife Sanctuary - West, Thailand at ‘Sesawo’, in evergreen riverine strips bordered by extensive deciduous forests (W. Chutipong pers. comm. 2014). The only known record from within deciduous forest may be a duo observed on three consecutive nights in a fruiting Elaeocarpus amid mixed deciduous forest, some 400 m from the nearest significant patch of evergreen forest (Chutipong et al. 2014a, W. Chutipong pers. comm. 2014).

Small-toothed Palm Civet is nocturnal and strongly arboreal (Pocock 1939, van Bemmel 1952, Duckworth 1997a, Duckworth and Nettelbeck 2008, Willcox et al. 2012) but will descend to baited traps at ground level (Chutipong et al. 2014a) and is, exceptionally, camera-trapped there (Kakati and Srikant 2014). Although consumption of a wide range of animals has been recorded, this species is primarily frugivorous (Harrison 1962, Payne 1995, Duckworth and Nettelbeck 2008). It perhaps breeds throughout the year, and there may be two litters per year, with two to three young in each litter (Lekagul and McNeely 1977). Its lifespan (in captivity) is 10 to 12 years (Lekagul and McNeely 1977).

Small-toothed Palm Civet occurs in South-east Asia (both Sundaic and Indochinese parts), adjacent southern China, North-east India and possibly Bangladesh. There are recent records from most geopolitical units in this range: North-east India (e.g. Naniwadekar et al. 2013, Kakati and Srikant 2014, Murali et al. 2014, Raman & Zakhuma 2014), Thailand (e.g. Duckworth and Nettelbeck 2008, Chutipong et al. 2014a), Lao PDR (e.g. Duckworth 1997b), Viet Nam (e.g. Borissenko et al. 2004, Long and Minh 2006, Willcox et al. 2012), Cambodia (e.g. Walston and Duckworth 2003, Iseborn et al. 2012, Gray et al. 2014), Peninsular Malaysia (Ratnam et al. 1995, Eaton et al. 2010, Low 2011), Singapore (e.g. Chua et al. 2012), Sumatra (e.g. Holden 2006), Borneo (e.g. Duckworth 1997a, Wells et al. 2005, Belden et al. 2007, Wahyudi and Stuebing 2014), and Java (e.g. Suyanto 2003, Eaton et al. 2010, Moore 2011, Moore and Wihermanto 2014). There are possibly no recent records from China or Myanmar. There has been very little relevant recent survey in the latter (Than Zaw et al. 2008), but there is a recent record of an apparently released animal in the outskirts of Yangon (Su Su 2005). The occurrence in Bangladesh is plausible but apparently unconfirmed; a specimen collected in Sylhet has a locality insufficiently precise to determine whether it is in today's Bangladesh or India (Murali et al. 2014); suitable habitat remains in the northern and eastern hill tracts. Reliance on recent records to define this genus's current distribution risks underestimation because it is readily overlooked by conventional survey techniques (Duckworth and Nettelbeck 2008, Willcox et al. 2012). 

The altitudinal distribution is not well known. There are records from sea-level (e.g. Similajau National Park, Sarawak, Malaysia; Duckworth 1997a) but the upper limit is less clear, reflecting the rarity of spotlighting in rugged highland terrain. Across its range, there may be few records above about 1,500 m altitude (from Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia; Medway 1977). However, it is quite plausible that it occurs regularly well above this, given the paucity of suitable survey at high altitudes. There are recent records from 2,000 and 2,100 m a.s.l. on Gunung Tujuh in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia (J. Holden pers. comm. 2015).

Small-toothed Palm Civet is Totally Protected in Peninsular Malaysia, but only Protected in Sabah and Sarawak under the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972 (WPA 1972). It is not protected in Thailand (Chutipong et al. 2014a), Viet Nam or Cambodia (GMA Small Carnivore Workshop 2006). The species has been recorded from many protected areas in some countries of its range. Although it is not confirmed in many protected areas in some countries, notably Myanmar, this is more likely to reflect the patchiness of surveys using methods likely to find this species; many large protected areas in northern South-east Asian evergreen and semi-evergreen forest so far without records presumably support the species. Outside Java there are no obvious conservation needs. Given repeated suggestions of the taxonomic distinctiveness of the genus in Java and its rarity there, the highest priority conservation needs are to clarify the genus's taxonomy and to survey specifically for it in Java so that, if it truly is rare rather than merely under-recorded, areas for its conservation can be identified and managed.