New York’s records for the Indiana bat are sparse by design: 94 total, every one from GBIF, and NatureServe ranks the species S1, critically imperiled, in the state. Sparse data and a highly imperiled rank tend to go together for a bat this hard to safely observe and identify.
New York’s own white-nose syndrome ground zero
This is the state where white-nose syndrome was first documented in North America, discovered in a cave near Albany in the winter of 2006 to 2007. Indiana bats were already federally endangered before that, dependent on a handful of cold, humid caves and mines for winter hibernation, often gathering in the thousands at a single site. The disease has hit exactly that kind of dense winter gathering hardest, which is a large part of why New York’s Indiana bat numbers and records have both stayed so low since.
A January-heavy record set
Nearly half of New York’s Indiana bat records fall in January, which tracks how this species is actually studied here: biologists counting bats in winter caves and mines, not casual summer sightings. Confirming an Indiana bat in flight requires checking foot, toe hair, and skull details that a quick glimpse can’t settle, so most confirmed records come from biologists handling bats at the roost rather than from the public.
Summer habitat gets less attention than it deserves
Between hibernation seasons, Indiana bats spread into wooded, streamside habitat like the Hudson Valley’s farm-and-forest corridors, where females roost under loose bark and forage over water and woodland edges. That summer habitat matters just as much as the winter caves, even though it generates far fewer confirmed records.
Status in New York
NatureServe ranks the Indiana bat S1, critically imperiled, in New York, a sharper decline than almost any other bat covered in this pilot. The species is native to the state, but its future here depends on protecting both the handful of hibernation caves it still uses and the wooded summer corridors that connect them.
Full species profile
