The species is endemic to the lowlands of southern New Guinea with occasional vagrant individuals sighted off the coast of northern Australia.

Its hunting strategy is not overly aggressive, but primarily being an ambush predator, it spends most of its time at the bottom of its chosen river bed, waiting for prey to wander by.

[4] Surprisingly enough, P. bibroni has some level of salt tolerance and is occasionally sighted in the offshore marine environment off southern New Guinea.

Some individuals even manage to reach northern coastal Australia, with observers on the Australian coast occasionally sighting P. bibroni about once a decade (although no populations have yet been established).

[11] P. bibroni has a natural predator in the saltwater crocodile (Crocodilus porosus), but its current status as a threatened species stems from human activity.

[7] It is less threatened than its northern relative, P. signifera, which has to also contend with introduced fish species and have led to a significantly degraded habitat.