South Carolina’s occurrence databases hold 55 records for the Seminole bat, split between iNaturalist and GBIF, spread from the upstate down to the coast.
A foliage bat, from Piedmont pines to Lowcountry oaks
Records span two very different settings: the pine and hardwood stands of Sumter National Forest in the Piedmont, and the marsh-edge maritime forest of the ACE Basin and Cape Romain national wildlife refuges on the coast. Seminole bats are foliage roosters, tucking into clumps of Spanish moss or dense pine needles by day rather than caves or buildings, and both settings give the species that kind of hanging cover.
Mahogany fur and a night spent over open ground
The Seminole bat’s rich mahogany-red fur sets it apart from South Carolina’s other tree bats at a glance, when it can be seen at all. Like the state’s other red bats and hoary bats, it spends the day motionless in foliage, resembling a dead leaf or a hanging pine cone, then drops out at dusk to hunt moths and other night-flying insects over fields, forest edges, and open water.
Status in South Carolina
NatureServe ranks the Seminole bat S3, vulnerable, in South Carolina, and it’s native to the state. Its scattered records, from Piedmont pine forest to coastal marsh edge, track a bat that depends on Spanish moss and foliage cover across a surprisingly wide range of South Carolina habitat.
