South Carolina’s few documented northern yellow bat records cluster in the Lowcountry, around ACE Basin National Wildlife Refuge, Cape Romain National Wildlife Refuge, and Hunting Island State Park. That’s the maritime forest and barrier island setting this bat needs, where live oaks draped in Spanish moss stand alongside cabbage palmettos.
Northern yellow bats roost in clumps of dead palm fronds and hanging Spanish moss rather than in caves or buildings, tucking into the foliage during the day. At dusk they fly out over marsh edges and open water to catch flying insects, a foraging style suited to the tidal creeks and maritime hammocks along the coast.
Only a handful of records exist for the state so far, with most reports falling between April and June. That’s a thin dataset, and it says more about how hard this bat is to spot in dense foliage than it does about how many actually use the coast.
Full species profile
