Two counties dominate the Kansas record for the northern myotis. Marshall County, in the Big Blue River valley along the Nebraska line, accounts for about two-thirds of the state’s mapped reports, and Ellis County in the Smoky Hills adds most of the rest. A concentration that sharp almost always signals sustained survey work, mist nets over streams or checks of known roosts, not a bat that’s truly absent everywhere else. Records show effort first and distribution second.
The seasonal shape is pronounced. Reports spike in July, when maternity colonies are active and newly flying pups blunder into nets, with a secondary rise in March and April as bats leave their winter roosts. The quiet midwinter months fit a bat hibernating out of sight underground.
Kansas matters to this species more than the state listing suggests. The IUCN lists it as Near Threatened and NatureServe ranks it imperiled worldwide, while the state’s own S3 reads as merely vulnerable. Wooded river corridors threading through farm country are its Kansas lifeline, and the Marshall County cluster shows how much can ride on one well-wooded valley.
Full species profile
