Big brown bats are spread wider across New Jersey than any single hotspot suggests, 109 records reaching 19 of the state’s 21 counties, from Somerset and Hunterdon through Warren and Sussex down to Cape May Point State Park. No named site stands out: Cape May Point, at the coastal wetlands of the state’s southern tip, has just 2 records, and Stokes State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap add one apiece.
Beetles over the treetops
A big brown bat is built heavier than most of New Jersey’s bats, with broad wings that let it fly steady, unhurried circuits over forest openings, ponds, and streetlit neighborhoods. Beetles make up much of its diet, and a single bat can work through heavy numbers of them on a summer night. It roosts where people live as readily as in trees, tucking into barns, attics, and bridges, which is why records turn up in the state’s most developed counties as well as its forested parks.
Summer skies, winter walls
Reports climb from May through August, when flying insects are thickest and the year’s young bats join their mothers on the wing. Unlike the tree bats that leave New Jersey each fall, big brown bats winter in place, hibernating in caves, mines, and the sheltered crevices of buildings. An occasional midwinter record usually means a warm spell has roused one from its roost for a brief flight.
Status in New Jersey
NatureServe ranks the big brown bat S3, Vulnerable, in New Jersey, even though the species remains G5, secure, across its full range. It is native to the state, and USGS NAS does not list it as nonindigenous.
Full species profile
