The northern long-eared bat hunts by gleaning insects directly off leaves and bark in cluttered forest, a slower, more maneuverable style than the open-air chases favored by many other bats. That habit ties it closely to intact woodland like Wayne National Forest, where most of its 38 Ohio records come from.
Like several of Ohio’s cave-hibernating bats, this species has been hit hard by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has collapsed hibernating colonies across the eastern US since it arrived. NatureServe now ranks it S1, critically imperiled, in Ohio, and it’s also federally listed as endangered, so a modern record represents a real rarity rather than routine bat activity.
Full species profile
