This New Guinea rodent occurs in forest. An older handbook, using the name Melomys levipes, describes coat variation with elevation; a separate survey trapped it on the forest floor near gardens reverting to bush.
The 1979 handbook describes sleek reddish-brown fur in lowland specimens and thicker, darker olive-brown fur at higher elevations. It also notes gray ventral hairs tipped with white and a tail darker above than below.
A Northern Tamrau survey caught it in a peanut-butter trap on the forest floor near a former garden. The authors also cite earlier records from old gardens returning to bush.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.