Georgia’s handful of records for this bat cluster in the state’s Coastal Plain, including the swamps around the Okefenokee refuge, with a smaller presence up in the Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. That split reflects the bat’s real habitat preference, since it’s most at home in the bottomland hardwood swamps and wet forests of the Southeast’s lower half.
This bat roosts almost exclusively in hollow tree cavities and old, often abandoned buildings, a habit that sets it apart from cave-hibernating bats and ties it directly to the mature, cavity-bearing trees that stand in Georgia’s less-disturbed swamp forest. Its big, close-set ears fold back against the head at rest, a field mark that makes it recognizable even at a roost entrance.
Reports run through the year with a June peak, though with counts this low that’s more likely a survey-timing artifact than a true seasonal surge.
