This species is regularly recorded from moist forest-grassland mosaics (including rainforest and Afromontane forest), and mesic woodland and savanna (including Sudanean and Miombo woodlands) habitats. In East African coastal areas it has been recorded from mangroves. It has been found resting together in small groups of about a dozen animals.

This species is largely distributed in Central Africa and East Africa and closely associated with highlands of the Rift Valley, occurring at higher altitudes than E. minor. It appears to range from northern Nigeria into Chad, southern and central South Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea, and from here south into eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, Kenya and northwestern Tanzania, being recorded as far south as Malawi and soouthern Tanzania. There is one isolated record from coastal Congo. Based on collectors’ notes on labels of accurately identified specimens (Bergmans 1988), apart from the isolated coastal locality of Point Noire, Congo, it occurs at elevations from 610 m to 2,200 asl at Gondar, Ethiopia.

This species has been recorded from many protected areas. No direct conservation measures are currently needed for the species as a whole. Additional research is needed into the impact of possible overharvesting of animals on some populations.