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An endemic species to South Africa. While declining in parts of its range, the species is listed as Least Concern in view of its wide distribution, its known large population (there are many records of this species occurring in high numbers in coastal caves), and because it is unlikely to be declining fast enough to qualify for listing in a more threatened category.
This South African endemic is mainly restricted to the coastal belt, typically 100-200 km wide (but possibly further inland), of the Northern Cape, Western Cape and the Eastern Cape provinces of South Africa, and occurs from just south of the border of Namibia in the west as far east along the coast as the vicinity of East London (Skinner and Chimimba 2005). It occurs mainly in the South West Cape biotic zone (BZ), but extends marginally into the Karoo, Highveld, Coastal Forest Mosaic and Afromontane-Afroapline BZs (Bernard 2013). We follow Herselman and Norton (1985) and Monadjem et al. (2010) in extending its range to just south of the Orange River on the Namibian border, but it may also occur in southern Namibia (Griffin 1999). As R. capensis is difficult to discern from R. clivosus and R. darling, records north of 32°S may need vetting (Bernard 2013). Similarly, one record from north-east Eastern Cape (Lynch 1989) needs vetting. Its current estimated extent of occurrence is over 400,000 km².
This species is common throughout its range (Bernard 2013), and is relatively well represented in museums (Monadjem et al. 2010). Skinner and Chimimba (2005) state that 'they are abundant in the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, where there are many records from coastal caves. It can be found in colonies consisting of thousands of individuals (Herselman and Norton 1985, Taylor 2000, Skinner and Chimimba 2005). For example, there are an estimated 19,000 individuals in De Hoop Guano Cave (McDonald et al. 1990a).
No major threats have been identified for this species. It may be declining in parts of its range due to disturbance of cave roosts (often by recreational and tourism activities), and the conversion of suitable foraging habitat to agricultural use.