Kentucky’s occurrence data hold 16 records of the eastern small-footed myotis, one of the smallest bats in North America and one this atlas records unevenly across the state.
A crevice-dweller across two kinds of rock
This bat roosts in narrow rock crevices rather than open cave chambers, and Kentucky offers two very different versions of that habitat. In the Appalachian Plateau around Daniel Boone National Forest, it tucks into sandstone crevices and cliff faces like those at Red River Gorge. In the Pennyroyal karst around Mammoth Cave National Park, and again in the hardwood cover at Land Between the Lakes, it can use limestone cave entrances and sinkhole ledges instead. Few Kentucky bats bridge that much difference in rock type across their range.
Records that thin out in the cold
Kentucky’s counts concentrate in the warmer months, when this bat forages in the open and surveyors can catch it on emergence counts or in mist nets, then taper off as the weather cools and it retreats into the tight, cold-tolerant crevices where it spends winter.
Status in Kentucky
The eastern small-footed myotis is native to Kentucky and isn’t flagged as nonindigenous by USGS NAS. NatureServe ranks it S2, imperiled, making it one of the more vulnerable bats this atlas covers in the state.
