Tennessee’s big brown bat records spread across 47 counties, led by Hamilton, Sevier, and Davidson, and among named sites Cherokee National Forest supplies seven sightings, more than Dunbar Cave, Fall Creek Falls, or Bays Mountain Park, which add three each. Most records, 146 of 156, are iNaturalist observations, and 98 also appear in GBIF, so casual sightings carry much of what’s documented.
June stands out as Tennessee’s single highest month for this bat, well ahead of the broader July-through-October plateau that follows. That early-summer spike likely tracks maternity roosts, when females gather in buildings or tree cavities to raise pups and become easier for people to notice. January and February drop to a handful of records, which isn’t surprising for a bat that spends cold weather tucked away in hibernation.
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