Virginia holds 96 records of the eastern small-footed myotis, most of them iNaturalist photographs, with reports running heaviest in June and July and a smaller pulse in October. This is one of the smallest bats in the state and also one of its rarest, a combination that makes documenting it a genuine challenge.
A bat that roosts in cracked Blue Ridge rock
This species doesn’t use tree cavities or buildings the way many Virginia bats do. It wedges into narrow rock crevices, talus slopes, and cliff faces, habitat that’s common through the Blue Ridge and Appalachian highlands around Shenandoah National Park but largely absent from the Coastal Plain. That rock-crevice habit also makes the species harder to survey, since a roost can be a single crack in a cliff face rather than an obvious cave mouth or attic.
Summer records, then a retreat underground
The June and July peak in reports lines up with the warmer months, when this bat forages for flying insects and is easiest to catch on camera or in a survey net. The smaller October pulse likely marks fall swarming, when bats gather near cave and mine entrances before settling in to hibernate for winter.
Status in Virginia
NatureServe ranks the eastern small-footed myotis S2, imperiled, in Virginia, a step above its global IUCN listing of endangered, and the state doesn’t list it as nonindigenous. It’s native here, but it’s also one of the more vulnerable bats on Virginia’s mammal list.
