The long-legged myotis is a fast-flying bat of western forests, built for hawking moths over treetops and mountain streams, and Idaho sits squarely in the middle of its range. The state’s 3 records since 2000 don’t show it that way: one each from Kootenai, Idaho and Washington counties, all GBIF entries and none from iNaturalist.
Three records are too few to read anything into, and a bat this thinly documented isn’t necessarily rare; it can simply be one that nobody catches easily. Long-legged myotis fly high and fast, which keeps them out of most mist nets, and they slip through acoustic surveys that can’t always separate them from their close relatives. NatureServe ranks the species vulnerable in Idaho, but with so little to go on, the honest description is “under-documented” as much as anything else.
The three reports fall in June, July and August, the short mountain summer when the bats are active and researchers are in the field.
Full species profile
