The hirsute cotton rat occurs in grasslands and agricultural areas from Central America into northern South America. It was formerly treated as a subspecies of S. hispidus.
It is medium-sized. In a study of an organic pineapple farm in Costa Rica, males were larger and heavier than females.
At the same Costa Rican farm, pregnant females were found in every month sampled and juveniles in almost every month. The study interpreted this as evidence of year-round reproduction at that site.
An extinction-risk assessment has not been added yet.