In mesic, grassland habitats (e.g. Kwa-Zulu Natal Midlands; Wirminghaus & Perrin, 1993; Pretoria Highveld; Brooks, 1974; Zimbabwe grassland; Choate, 1972) and semi-succulent thorny scrub (e.g. Eastern Cape; Perrin, 1980a, b) animals are solitary, with females rearing their litters on their own, and both sexes maintain territories that overlap the territories of the opposite, but not the same, sex (Schradin & Pillay, 2005a).
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Traditionally the genus has been seen as a single species, Rhabdomys pumilio, though modern evidence on the basis of karyotype and mtDNA analysis suggests that it comprises two or more species and subspecies.
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They will also eat the underground storage organs of certain small species of geophytes, such as edible Moraeas, which they can locate by smell and dig up.