Choloepus hoffmanni is largely found in lowland and montane tropical forest, both deciduous and mixed-deciduous. In Central America, it occurs in evergreen and semi-deciduous tropical moist forest, as well as in secondary forest, but it is rare or absent in lowland dry forest. In Costa Rica, it is able to use cocoa plantations (Theobroma cacao) as habitat (Vaughan et al. 2007, Peery and Pauli 2012) and frequently ventures into relatively open pastures in search of isolated feeding trees (Vaughan et al. 2007). In Nicaragua the species has been observed in dry grassland with thorny shrubs and trees (Genoways and Timm 2003).

These sloths are rather solitary. Preliminary studies in Honduras using camera traps have shown that their activity budgets consist of sleeping (61.3%), feeding (19.4%), preening (16.1%), and defecating (3.2%) (Martínez et al. 2020).

In cocoa farms of Costa Rica, the mating system involves a mixture of polygyny with promiscuity, the sex ratio is female-biased and male home ranges vary from 1.1 to 139.5 ha (Peery and Pauli 2012). Their herbivore-omnivore diet consists mainly of leaves, fruits and sap of some trees. In the tropical moist forests of Honduras, they feed on Cecropia sp. and Inga oerstediana (Martínez et al. 2020).

Further studies are needed to ascertain the existence of genetic differentiation among subpopulations or subspecies (Ruiz-Garcia et al. 2018).

Choloepus hoffmanni has two disjunct subpopulations. The northern subpopulation ranges from northern Honduras south into northwestern Ecuador and western Venezuela. The northernmost record was described by Martínez et al. (2020) in Los Naranjos in Colón department, Honduras. The southern subpopulation is found from north-central Peru through extreme western Brazil (south-western Amazonas, Rondônia, Acre and Mato Grosso states) to northern Bolivia. Its range within Brazil remains unclear, and further surveys are needed. There is a doubtful, outlying record for this species from the Rio Aripuanã, Mato Grosso state, Brazil (Fonseca and Aguiar 2004). There is another outlying and more recent record for the species for the region of Cristalino, in northern Mato Grosso, Brazil (Rocha et al. 2012). However, since this record was based on visual detection only and the authors did not provide pictures or a detailed description of pelage coloration of the sighted sloth, the validity of this record should be considered with care until further information could confirm it.

This species ranges from sea level to 3,300 m asl in Costa Rica; up to 1,925 m asl in Panama; and up to 1,150 m asl in the southern Andes of Venezuela. In Colombia, the species is found in the biogeographical regions of the Andean zone, Caribbean and Chocó, more specifically in the departments of Cauca, Chocó, Cundinamarca, Nariño, Quindío, Sucre, Valle del Cauca, and Santanderes from sea level up to 3,200 m asl (Alberico et al. 2000, Moreno 2003, Morales-Jiménez et al. 2004, Acevedo and Sanchez 2007).

Choloepus hoffmanni is present in many protected areas. Further research is needed to establish whether there are taxonomic differences between the two disjunct populations. The species is listed as Endangered in Honduras (Wildlife Conservation Society 2021).