Alabama’s Gulf Coast holds 26 southeastern myotis records overall, drawn from both iNaturalist and GBIF, gathered between 2000 and 2026 and most recently confirmed in May 2026. Reports turn up in every month, with the largest clusters in March and May.
Gulf Coast records without the caves this bat is named for
Every one of Alabama’s confirmed sightings comes from the immediate Gulf shoreline: Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge, Dauphin Island, and Gulf State Park, all within a short stretch of Baldwin County’s barrier-island and bay-marsh country. That’s notable because this species is best known elsewhere as a cave bat, and Alabama’s limestone cave country lies well north of the coast. Along the Gulf, with no cave to roost in, the bats recorded here are working the marshes and dune wetlands the national range data already ties to the species.
Hunting low over marsh and dune lake
Bon Secour’s bay marshes, Gulf State Park’s coastal dune lakes, and Dauphin Island’s back-bay shallows all give this bat exactly the hunting ground it needs: open, still water low enough to work just above the surface for emerging insects. That’s a narrower niche than it sounds, since a bat built for skimming calm water doesn’t do as well over open surf or fast-moving channels, which may be part of why records concentrate on these particular protected shorelines rather than spreading evenly along the whole Alabama coast.
Status in Alabama
The southeastern myotis is native to Alabama. NatureServe ranks it S2, imperiled, in a state that sits at the edge of the bat’s range along the Gulf.
