Missouri’s 14 northern hoary bat records cluster entirely in June and July, and nothing shows up the rest of the year. That fits a solitary, tree-roosting bat that only passes through or breeds in the state during the warm months. Mark Twain National Forest, Ozark National Scenic Riverways, and Ha Ha Tonka State Park are all forested Ozark country, exactly the kind of tree cover this bat needs for daytime roosting.
Most of the state’s records, 12 of 14, come from iNaturalist rather than GBIF, meaning people are spotting and photographing it more often than trapping or specimen work is picking it up. NatureServe ranks it S3, Vulnerable, in Missouri and G3, Vulnerable, rangewide, a status shared by few other bats in this group. Nationally, this species is also the bat found dead beneath wind turbines more than any other, a separate concern from what these few Missouri sightings show.
Full species profile
