This species occurs in a variety of habitat types where suitable roosting cavities are available (Goodman et al. 2005). It can survive in caves that are located some distance from relatively intact forest (Goodman et al. 2005), but the largest colonies are associated with forest formations and this species probably requires forest or some type of standing vegetation to forage (Randrianandriananina et al. 2006; Rakotoarivelo et al. 2007).

This species is endemic to the island of Madagascar (Simmons 2005) where it is widely distributed across a range of different vegetation types (Peterson et al. 1995; Goodman 1999; Eger and Mitchell 2003; Russ et al. 2003; Goodman et al. 2005).

This is a widespread species that is found in many of Madagascar’s protected areas, including those in the east and west of the island (Goodman 1999; Russ et al. 2003; Goodman et al. 2005).