Thought to have been a forest-dwelling browser,[1] Valgipes is a monotypic genus with a complex and long taxonomic history, and is a close relative of Catonyx and Proscelidodon.

[2] The taxonomic history of Scelidotheriidae in Brazil is convoluted, and only one species of Valgipes, V. bucklandi, is recognised today, named in honour of William Buckland.

Isotopic analysis of a specimen from Rio Grande do Norte indicates it was a browsing animal which lived in relatively closed environments, including the Atlantic Forest, and had a varied diet of leaves, shoots, roots, and fruits.

Large, mesoherbivorous mammals in the BIR were widespread and diverse, including the cow-like toxodontids Toxodon platensis and Piauhytherium, the macraucheniid litoptern Xenorhinotherium and equids such as Hippidion principale and Equus neogaeus.

Other xenarthran fossils are present in the area as well from several different families, like the giant megatheriid ground sloth Eremotherium, the fellow scelidotheriid Catonyx, the mylodontids Glossotherium, Ocnotherium, and Mylodonopsis.

Eremotherium was a generalist, while Nothrotherium was a specialist for trees in low density forests, and Valgipes was an intermediate of the two that lived in arboreal savannahs.