The range of A. trichotis is still not well known, although it has become clearer over the past 20 years. Up until 1989, animals had been sighted only along the Mananara River and the species was thought to be restricted to lowland rain forests of that area (Meier and Albignac, 1991). Since 1994, however, its presence has been documented in Marojejy National Park (Goodman and Raselimanana, 2002), Anjanaharibe-Sud Special Reserve (Schütz and Goodman, 1998; Schmid and Smolker, 1998), Masoala National Park (Sterling and Rakotoarison, 1998), Mananara-Nord National Park, the Marotandrano Special Reserve (J. Ralison, pers. comm.), Zahamena Strict Nature Reserve (Rakotoarison, 1995a, 1995b), Analamazaotra Special Reserve (Garbutt, 2001; R. A. Mittermeier, pers.obs.), Maromizaha Forest (J. Zaonarivelo, pers. comm.), Vohidrazana Forest (Rakotoarison et al., 1997), Ambavoty Classified Forest (E. E. Louis Jr., pers. obs.), and the forests of Vohimana (N. Garbutt, pers. comm.). Overall, sightings have been few (probably no more than a few dozen in total).
The species appears to be very rare wherever it occurs, with an estimated 11–19 individuals per km2 in the one study that has been conducted (Biebouw, 2009). Allocebus has mostly been found in intact tropical moist lowland and mid-altitude forest up to 1,000 m, but some populations appear to occur in montane forests (e.g., the Marotandrano Special Reserve) up to 1,600 m. It also seems to tolerate moderate levels of human activity (Schütz and Goodman, 1998).