Hoary bats roost alone in tree foliage rather than caves, which makes them one of the harder bats to find and photograph, so it’s no surprise that all 17 Montana records come from GBIF data with zero iNaturalist observations. Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, Flathead Lake, and the Missouri River corridor all offer the mix of open water and forest edge where hoary bats forage for moths at dusk.
Ten of those 17 records fall in August alone, which likely reflects the species’ late-summer migration south, when bats become more active and more detectable, rather than a true seasonal abundance spike built from so few sightings. NatureServe ranks Montana’s breeding population S3B, vulnerable, distinct from the species’ more secure global standing, a signal worth taking seriously given how thin the state’s existing record base already is.
Full species profile
