Kentucky’s open databases hold 53 records of Rafinesque’s big-eared bat, split fairly evenly between iNaturalist photos and GBIF entries, and turning up across most months of the year.
Two very different Kentucky roosts
This bat’s oversized ears make it one of Kentucky’s easier bats to identify, and its choice of shelter shifts with the ground beneath it. In the karst country around Mammoth Cave National Park, it roosts in cave entrances and cisterns. Farther east, in the sandstone cliff country of Daniel Boone National Forest and Red River Gorge, it more often chooses hollow trees and rockhouse overhangs instead.
Gleaning moths near the entrance
Rather than chasing insects across open sky, it gleans moths and other insects directly off leaves and bark in slow, fluttering flight close to cover. It also tends to roost near a cave mouth or a rockhouse’s open front rather than deep inside, which makes it easier to spot but also more exposed to light and disturbance from visitors.
Status in Kentucky
Rafinesque’s big-eared bat is native to Kentucky, and NatureServe ranks it S3, vulnerable. Its habit of roosting near the open front of a cave or rockhouse, rather than tucked deep inside, is a real vulnerability tied directly to how it has to live in Kentucky’s cave and cliff country.
