It feeds upon a wide variety of species, including livestock, wild mammals, and humans, and can be a vector for various pathogens.

[11][12] R. I. Pocock described a junior synonym, R. marmoreus, in 1900; its holotype was deposited at the Natural History Museum, London.

[13] In 1926, Maria Tonelli-Rondelli described a subspecies R. p. humeralis, but in 1949, Fritz Konrad Ernst Zumpt reclassified it as its own species, R.

[6] Aldo Castellani and Albert J. Chalmers then referred to this species as Eurhipicephalus pulchellus, treating Neumann's subgenus as its own genus.

[8]: 159–160 Based on the larval and nymphal forms of Rhipicephalus species, Walker and colleagues placed R. pulchellus in the R. appendiculatus species group, consisting of R. appendiculatus, R. armatus, R. carnivoralis, R. duttoni, R. humeralis, R. maculatus, R. muehlensi, R. nitens, R. pulchellus, R. sculptus, and R.

[22] They have been found on baboons in the Amboseli region of Kenya near Mount Kilimanjaro, although they only made up 1.8% of all ticks recorded in this study.

[24] Although they far less frequently parasitize birds than they do mammals, examples exist of the ostrich and the yellow-necked francolin as hosts for this species, as well.

[27] There is also evidence that this tick can transmit Rickettsia conorii as guinea pigs tested positive for its antibodies after being fed on.

[28] One study suggested a possible link between this tick and typhus due to a similar distribution in Kenya, although transmission was unsuccessful in laboratory settings.

[29] It has also been shown to transmit Nairobi sheep disease,[25] and is likely its main vector in northern Somalia.

[9] It lives between elevations of 500 and 2,000 m (1,600 and 6,600 ft) in semiarid bushlands and plains with an annual rainfall of 100–800 mm (3.9–31.5 in).

[38] R. pulchellus has been reported as being found on animals such as giraffes, zebras, rhinoceroses, and others that were imported into the United States,[39] but it does not seem to have become established anywhere in the Nearctic realm.