Big brown bats are one of the few Massachusetts bats that regularly roost in buildings, so a report from Oxbow National Wildlife Refuge or the wetland woods at Great Meadows National Wildlife Refuge is just as likely to trace back to an attic or barn nearby as to a hollow tree. That flexibility has helped the species hold up better than the state’s cave-hibernating bats, which white-nose syndrome hit far harder.
Records carry two peaks, a sharp one in May and a second in July and August, tracking spring emergence from hibernation and the summer maternity season when females and pups are most active on the wing. NatureServe ranks the species S4, apparently secure, one of the healthier bat statuses in a state where several relatives now sit at critically imperiled.
Full species profile
