Big free-tailed bat is a scarce find in Texas, a scattering of 178 records concentrated around the cliffs and canyon country of Big Bend National Park and Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Texas sits at the northern edge of a mostly Mexican and Central American range, and the state’s most recent confirmed record dates to 2007, a sign of how easily this fast, high-flying bat slips past observers.
NatureServe rates it Vulnerable (S3) in Texas, a real step down from its secure global status, and the state’s occasional-tier ranking (74th among recorded mammals) fits an animal that roosts alone in rock crevices rather than gathering in the huge colonies that make Mexican free-tailed bats so easy to count. Reports cluster in May and again from September into October, months that likely catch more observer effort in canyon country than a true seasonal surge.
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