The Fierce Leaf-nosed Bat is a cave roosting species and is restricted to a small number of suitable caves and surrounding areas of lowland rainforest. Animals have been found roosting singly or in small groups of up to 12 individuals, often sharing caves with several other bat species, especially other species of Hipposideros (Flannery 1995, Bonaccorso 1998). It is the most robust leaf-nosed bat in Bougainville and the Solomon Islands, weighing 70-80 grams. It is believed to hunt from perches on vegetation, flying out to catch invertebrate prey (Lavery et al. 2016). Its robust dentition and relatively low frequency (52–55 kHz) echolocation call suggest it hunts for larger prey.

Genetic sequencing has revealed genetic divergence between sympatric Hipposideros dinops and H. diadema is less than that between H. diadema samples from the Solomon Islands and mainland Papua New Guinea (Lavery 2014). However, where H. dinops and H. diadema co-occur on Guadalcanal, Santa Isabel and in the Western Province they are reproductively isolated. Hipposideros dinops is easily distinguished by its larger size and distinctive long duration, relatively low frequency, echolocation call (Lavery 2015, Pennay and Lavery 2017). It is believed that H. dinops has undergone recent, rapid speciation, diverging from H. diadema in the past 1–2 million years (Lavery et al. 2014).

The Fierce Leaf-nosed Bat is present on the islands of Bougainville (Papua New Guinea), Choiseul, New Georgia, Nggatokae Island, Santa Isabel, San Jorge, and Malaita (all in the Solomon Islands). On these islands it appears to be restricted to a few caves and surrounding lowland rainforest habitats from sea level to about 400 m asl (Flannery 1995, Bonaccorso 1998). Only 1 or 2 caves are known to be used by this species in each of the major island groups, although it is likely that unknown caves also exist. The species is dependent on a very small number of caves on each major island group, resulting in an area of occupancy of ca 240–400 km² over six disconnected islands.

It is not known if this species occurs in any conservation reserves. Further studies into the distribution, ecology, population numbers, and threats to this species are needed along with protection of the known roosting sites and surrounding forests. The taxonomic relationships between the different island sub-populations requires further investigation to clarify their status as evolutionary significant units for the genus Hipposideros. Conservation actions working with customary landowners to protect known roost caves from disturbance would be beneficial both to this, and other species with which it shares the caves.