This snake inhabits diverse habitats near water bodies where it is primarily fossorial and occasionally aquatic or terrestrial. In Brazil it is known from Amazonia (Dixon and Soini 1977, Duellman 1978, Cunha and Nascimento 1981, 1993, Martins and Oliveira 1998, Icochea et al. 2001, Frota et al. 2005, Bernarde and Abe 2006, Fraga 2009), gallery forests in the Cerrado (Nogueira et al. 2011) and Cerrado-Amazonia transition areas (Carvalho and Di-Bernardo 2006, Brazil MMA 2007). In the Manaus region, this species is almost always collected on compacted, exposed soil of disturbed areas (clearings, unpaved roads, old forest trails); the compressed soil probably restricts underground movement, forcing the snakes to emerge from the soil. It is active both by day and at night (Martins and Oliveira 1998, Bernarde and Abe 2006). The diet primarily includes elongate fishes, amphisbaenids and other lizards, caecilians, small snakes, and aquatic vertebrates (Pérez-Santos and Moreno 1987, Martins and Oliveira 1998, Bernarde and Abe 2006). This species is live bearing (Martins and Oliveira 1998) and animals reach sexual maturity at 515 (male) and 631 (female) (Maschio et al. 2007). It has been suggested that reproduction is highly seasonal, with juvenile recruitment during the wet season (Maschio et al. 2007).

In central Brazilian Cerrado savannas the species is associated with low lying, damp gallery forests, along water courses of the Amazonas basin (Nogueira et al. 2011).

In Venezuela, this snake is found in four very different bio-regions: Cordillera de Mérida, Orinoco Delta, Guiana, and Amazonia (Rivas et al. 2012).

This species occurs in northern South America from southern Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana through the Amazon Basin of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, and Brazil (Cole et al. 2013). In Brazil this species is found in the states of Amazonas, Pará, Maranhão, Tocantins, Goiás, Mato Grosso and Rondônia, with a disjunct record in forest areas of Ceará. The elevation range is mostly between sea level to 300 m, although in Mérida, Venezuela, the elevational range extends from 250 to 1,000 m asl (Barrio et al. 2002).

No conservation measures are in place or recommended. The range of this species coincides with several protected areas.