Tennessee’s silver-haired bat records cluster in the forested high country of East Tennessee, around Great Smoky Mountains National Park, Cherokee National Forest, and Roan Mountain State Park. That’s mature Appalachian hardwood forest laced with streams, exactly the mix of tree cover and water this bat favors.
A quiet hunter of forest edges
Rather than racing across open sky, this bat works forest gaps and stream edges with a slow, maneuverable flight, picking off moths, beetles, and flies. It roosts alone or in small groups under loose bark or inside tree cavities, never forming the large colonies that some of Tennessee’s cave bats do.
A migrant passing through
Tennessee’s records run across the whole year but rise in late winter through spring and again in November, timing that fits a long-distance migrant moving through the mountains rather than a bat that’s easy to track. With only 39 records total, the species’ real use of Tennessee’s forests likely runs well ahead of what’s been documented.
Full species profile
