This West African rodent has collection records from Benin and Ghana. It is difficult to distinguish from close relatives, and the reported body traits are shared with related Arvicanthis.
It is difficult to distinguish from close relatives such as A. ansorgei. A shared description gives a medium-sized body, coarse speckled fur, a slender tail shorter than the body, and a reduced fifth fore-digit.
At Shai Hills Resource Reserve in Ghana, a survey captured three A. rufinus in wooded grassland. The paper also classifies the species among those typical of dry savanna grassland, woodland and shrubland. This is a local capture record plus the authors’ habitat characterization; the cited study does not establish a broad habitat preference, diet or individual behavior.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.