Fringed myotis roosts in caves, mines, and rock crevices by day and forages over desert scrub and woodland by night, which fits why Death Valley, Joshua Tree, and the Mojave National Preserve carry so many of California’s records. Those desert parks hold the rocky roosts and insect-rich washes this bat actually uses.
Only 14 of California’s 376 records came from iNaturalist, with the rest from GBIF, a lopsided split that points to bat surveys, mist-net studies, and museum specimens rather than casual photos of a small nocturnal animal most people never see up close.
July is the clear high point in the monthly count, building from a smaller April peak and tapering into a second rise in October. That summer-to-fall shape most likely tracks when field crews run acoustic and capture surveys, not when the bats are truly most active.
California ranks the species S3, vulnerable at the state level, a status that carries more weight given how few of these records come from anything but targeted survey work.
Full species profile
