Indiana holds only 32 documented records of the evening bat, most of them older GBIF specimen data rather than recent iNaturalist photos, and the most recent confirmed sighting dates back to 2019. That thin, aging record fits a species whose range is centered far to the south.
A warm-country bat at the edge of its range
Evening bats favor bottomland hardwoods, wooded edges, and warm buildings across the Gulf Coast and southern Plains, and Indiana sits well north of that core range. The state’s scattered locations, Indiana Dunes National Park, Kankakee Sands, and Pokagon State Park, all sit in the northern third of Indiana, consistent with a marginal foothold near the northern limit of where this bat can find warm enough summer roosts to raise young.
A single sharp peak tied to maternity colonies
Nearly every Indiana record falls in July, when female evening bats gather in tree cavities and warm building crevices to raise pups. That maternity-season crowding is when the species is most likely to turn up, whether in a bat house, an attic inspection, or a roost survey, and the record thins out fast on either side of that one warm month.
Status in Indiana
NatureServe ranks the evening bat S3, vulnerable, in Indiana, a step below its secure G5 rating globally. That gap is typical of a species holding on at the cool edge of a much larger warm-climate range, where local numbers run thinner and more exposed than the species’ broad continental picture suggests.
Full species profile
