This species inhabits the mid- to upper strata of lowland tropical moist forest, swamp forest and other lowland forest types, both primary and secondary, as well as plantations. In Côte d’Ivoire, P. potto was observed mainly in younger, more disturbed forests (Pimley pers. obs. 2013). However, the opposite has been observed in other parts of their range where they more commonly encountered in mature forests (Oates pers. obs. 1966–2009). There is very limited information on the diet of P. potto, but Oates (1984) reports that P. potto consumes gum, fruits and insects. Pottos are predominantly solitary animals, but display some degree of sociality, with mothers and young maintaining contact by means of olfactory communication and occasionally high frequency vocalisations (Bearder et al. 2003). Pottos in Taï National Park, Côte d’Ivoire, were found in proximity of another potto for 30% of observations, with a proportion of this time spent allogrooming, which suggests that the species may also associate in pairs, as observed in P. edwardsi in Cameroon (Pimley pers. obs. 1998–2000).

Perodicticus potto is listed on Appendix II of CITES and on Class B of the African Convention on the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources. This species is present in many protected areas throughout its range.