Alabama mammals

Big Brown Bat in Alabama

Eptesicus fuscus

Native to Alabama S5 Secure in Alabama

Not listed as nonindigenous in Alabama by USGS NAS; native to its Alabama range.

IUCN Red List status

  1. LC
  2. NT
  3. VU
  4. EN
  5. CR
  6. EW
  7. EX

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

Big Brown Bat in Alabama, by the numbers

Occasional in Alabama 29th most recorded of 78 mammals logged in Alabama

109 occurrence records
87 with iNaturalist photos
Jun 20, 2026 Last seen in Alabama

Records from 2000–2026.

109 total records count every Alabama occurrence from GBIF and iNaturalist; the monthly chart covers the 108 records with a full observation date.

When to look for the Big Brown Bat in Alabama

Most sightings fall in February to August.

108 Alabama occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Alabama records (table)
MonthRecords
January5
February10
March11
April13
May16
June10
July13
August12
September4
October4
November3
December7

Monthly big brown bat occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Alabama, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Alabama, with recorded sightings peaking in February–August.

Occurrence map

Where Big Brown Bat has been recorded in Alabama

109 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

109 Alabama records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monumentiNaturalist records
Little River Canyon National Preserve 5
Wehle Nature Center 3
Louise Kreher Forest Ecology Preserve 1
Rickwood Caverns State Park 1
Chewacla State Park 1
William B. Bankhead National Forest 1

Protected places with the most big brown bat sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Alabama

CountyRecords
Lee County 23
Jackson County 14
Jefferson County 9
Calhoun County 7
Madison County 5
St. Clair County 5
Lauderdale County 4
Lawrence County 4
DeKalb County 4
Cherokee County 4
Tuscaloosa County 4
Blount County 3
14 other counties 23

The complete county distribution, spread across 26 Alabama counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Big brown bats carry a NatureServe S5 secure rank in Alabama, and the record splits almost evenly between iNaturalist (87) and GBIF (81), suggesting casual sightings and survey data document this building-roosting bat in roughly equal measure. As one of the few bat species that regularly shelters in structures, records near Little River Canyon and the Talladega uplands likely reflect both natural cave and rock-crevice roosts and nearby human buildings.

Records show three separate bumps, February, May, and July, rather than one smooth curve, a pattern that plausibly tracks distinct phases of the bat’s year: late-winter emergence from torpor, spring maternity-colony activity, and summer foraging when insect prey peaks.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

More mammals in Alabama in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

  • GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
  • iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
  • NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
  • IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
  • USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
  • Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
  • USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries
  • USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"