This bat has been recorded from a range of habitats, but is closely associated with the Fynbos and Succulent Karoo Biomes (Monadjem et al. 2010). Populations roost in suitable coastal and sea caves, and have been recorded from dark lofts, and disused mines (Taylor 2000, Csorba et al. 2003), but apparently avoids houses (Bernard 2013). They often shares caves with R. clivosus and Miniopterus natalensis (Herselman and Norton 1985, Stoffberg 2008). They forage predominantly in the canopy of trees (McDonald et al. 1990b), or in orchards surrounding wetlands and over the wetlands themselves (Sirami et al. 2013). They are clutter foragers, feeding primarily on Coleoptera and Lepidoptera (Jacobs et al. 2007, Monadjem et al. 2010). Small-scale migrations of 10 km have been recorded (Taylor 2000). Sometimes hibernates in winter but torpor not as deep as R. clivsous (R.T.F Bernard pers. obs.).

This South African endemic is mainly restricted to the coastal belt, typically 100-200 km wide (but possibly further inland), of the Northern Cape, Western Cape and the Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, and occurs from just south of the border of Namibia in the west as far east along the coast as the vicinity of East London (Skinner and Chimimba 2005). It occurs mainly in the South West Cape biotic zone (BZ), but extends marginally into the Karoo, Highveld, Coastal Forest Mosaic and Afromontane-Afroapline BZs (Bernard 2013). We follow Herselman and Norton (1985) and Monadjem et al. (2010) in extending its range to just south of the Orange River on the Namibian border, but it may also occur in southern Namibia (Griffin 1999). As R. capensis is difficult to discern from R. clivosus and R. darling, records north of 32°S may need vetting (Bernard 2013). Similarly, one record from north-east Eastern Cape (Lynch 1989) needs vetting. Its current estimated extent of occurrence is over 400,000 km².