Vermont’s Indiana bat record is a one-site story, and that fact matters more than any number on the page. Sixty-seven of the state’s 70 records come from Rutland County, and the Green Mountain National Forest accounts for most of those. The great majority were logged in February, in the dead of winter, which is the signature of hibernaculum surveys: biologists entering a cave to count the clusters of endangered bats hanging from its ceiling.
When nearly an entire state’s known population of a species winters under one roof, the records look reassuringly dense while the situation stays fragile. The bat is federally listed as endangered, NatureServe ranks it critically imperiled in Vermont, and the state’s most recent record dates to March 2017. A single bad winter, a disturbed cave, or white-nose syndrome working through a cluster can move the whole state total.
Summer is the quiet season in the data. After the caves empty, females spread into the forest to raise single pups under loose bark, and Vermont’s record shows almost nothing of where they go. Filling in that summer half of the year is the obvious gap in the state’s picture.
Full species profile
