Caccobius ferrugineus occupies a large range where it is well-represented in game reserves owing to its ready attraction to a range of dung types. It therefore faces no substantial threats and is listed as Least Concern.

This species was described from the margins of the River Limpopo in southern Africa and shows a widespread distribution in dry to moist African savannas. There are reliable spot records for the dry savannas of southern Africa, the coastal part of east Africa, and the wet but hot savannas of West Africa (Australian CSIRO 1970-1986, unpublished records, Cambefort 1991, Schoolmeesters 2011), with validated country records from South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Kenya, and Côte d’Ivoire (A. Davis pers. comm. 2023). Additional reports exist from Malawi, Tanzania, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Somalia, Gabon, Nigeria, Benin, and Senegal (Davis et al. 2020, A. Davis pers. comm. 2023). An earlier Red List assessment (Davis 2013) also includes Niger within its distribution.

The fragmented distribution and patchy records may be partly a collecting artefact related to the small body size of the species, leading it to be overlooked by collectors, and partly the result of its specialisation to soil type. In a survey of Kenya and northern Tanzania, the species was found only in the sandy coastal region. However, it probably has a wider distribution in west and north central Africa than is currently known. Davis et al. (2020) map it densely in northern South Africa (reflecting greater sampling intensity - A. Davis pers. comm. 2023), and show numerous disjunct records across Namibia and Zimbabwe.

Based on 137 records across southern Africa it has an elevation range from sea level to 1,850 m asl. (Davis et al. 2020).

This species is extremely widespread (Schoolmeesters 2011) and often occurs at high local abundance (Tshikae et al. 2008).

In quantitative comparisons of six local habitat types near Tshwane / Pretoria, South Africa, this very small-bodied, dusk-flying species showed a very strong bias to occurrence on deep sand in grassland (261 specimens collected) with much lower abundance in open woodland (57) or thickets (45) on deep sand and great rarity on finer-grained clay soils (eight) (Davis 1996). Only a single record summarised by Davis et al. (2020) is from a fallow crop field.

In a comparison of bait types in Chobe National Park, Botswana, it was attracted (820 in total) in slightly greater proportional abundance to elephant dung (45%) than to pig (28%) and cattle dung (20%), whereas sheep dung (7%) and carrion (0.1%) were poor or extremely poor attractants (Tshikae et al. 2008). Collection records for southern and east Africa are also primarily from sand in grassland or open shrub / woodland on cattle or a mixture of human and cattle or buffalo dung (Australian CSIRO 1970-1986, unpublished records). It exhibits a general bias towards omnivore (especially pig) dung, is less common on the dung of monogastric herbivores and ruminants, and is rare on carrion (Davis et al. 2020).

This species has been recorded in savanna ecoregions that include patches or areas of sand, particularly a wide block in southern Africa, Southern Miombo woodlands (AT0719), Angolan Mopane woodlands (AT0702), Zambezian Baikiaea woodlands (AT0726), Kalahari Acacia-Baikiaea woodlands (AT0709), Zambezian and Mopane woodlands (AT0725), Southern Africa bushveld (AT0717), Kalahari xeric savanna (AT1309); a coastal occurrence in east Africa in the Northern Zanzibar-Inhambane coastal forest mosaic (AT0125) and eastern edge of the Northern Acacia-Commiphora bushlands and thickets (AT0711); and records from west Africa in West Sudanian savanna (AT0722) and Guinean forest-savanna mosaic (AT0707) (ecoregions based on Olson et al. 2001). It is flight active during the summer rainy season (Davis et al. 2020).

Across 137 localities summarised by Davis et al. (2020) mean annual rainfall is between 85 and 1,254 mm, and mean annual temperature between 13.4 and 24.6 °C (Davis et al. 2020).

There are no serious known threats to this species at present.

Specimens of this species are offered for sale on the internet.

There are no species-specific conservation measures in place. As this species is extremely widespread across regions with deep sandy soils, shows a preference for open vegetation, and has been recorded in abundance in both agro-ecosystems and national parks (Davis 1996, Tshikae et al. 2008), it does not require any additional conservation action at present.