This species is present in primary and secondary lowland, submontane and montane forests and gallery forests. In Gabon, Servaline Genet was recently recorded throughout the country and across most habitat types (Bahaa-el-din et al. 2013). Van Rompaey and Colyn (2013) gave a summary of several of the habitats from which they have been recorded including wet forests in Kenya, high-altitude bamboo forest in the Udzungwa Mountains, and groundwater forest and coral rag thicket on Zanzibar.

Servaline Genet ranges from southern Cameroon, south of the Sanaga River, and Central African Republic and southwards in Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Republic of the Congo to southern Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, and possibly also Burundi (unconfirmed record from Kibira forest; Wilson, 1990). There are discontinuous populations in the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania, including the North Pare Mtns, Udzungwa Mtns, East Usambara Mtns, Uluguru Mtns, Rubeho Mtns, and Nguru North and South Mtns (Rovero et al. 2006, Cordero and Seltzer 2012, Van Rompaey and Colyn 2013). De Luca and Mpunga (2013) did not camera-trap or observe the species in Mt Rungwe Nature Reserve and Kitulo National Park, south-west Tanzania. Similarly, a recent camera-trapping study did not yield any picture of Servaline Genet from the Mlele Beekeeping Zone and the northern part of Rukwe Game Reserve, western Tanzania (Fischer et al. 2013). Gaubert et al. (2006) gave museum records from north of the Sanaga River, from several additional localities in Tanzania, as well as from two localities in south-eastern DR Congo (these are not mapped). The species is present on Zanzibar (Van Rompaey and Colyn 1998, Goldman and Winther-Hansen 2003). It is recorded from almost sea level to 3,500 m a.s.l. on Mt Elgon, Kenya (Kingdon 1977) and perhaps to elevations above 4,400 m a.s.l. in eastern DR Congo (Verschuren 1972).

Servaline Genet is present in several protected areas across the range, including G. s. archeri in Jozani–Chakwa Bay National Park, Zanzibar (Goldman and Winther-Hansen 2003, D. De Luca pers. obs. 2014). Lowe’s Servaline Genet was rediscovered in the Udzungwa Mountains National Park in south-central Tanzania after a gap of nearly 70 years (Brink et al. 2002, De Luca and Mpunga 2002).