Alabama holds 13 southeastern myotis records, all iNaturalist observations gathered between 2000 and 2026 and most recently confirmed in May 2026. Reports turn up in seven months, with the largest counts, 3 each, in March and July.
Scattered records, mostly away from cave country
Bullock County leads with 5 records, 2 of them from the Wehle Nature Preserve in the state’s southeast, and most of the rest come singly or in pairs from counties as far apart as Madison in the north and Houston on the Florida line. That’s notable because this species is best known elsewhere as a cave bat, and Alabama’s limestone cave country lies in the north, where Madison and Marshall counties add just 3 records between them. Farther south, with no cave to roost in, the bats recorded here likely shelter in hollow trees near water, as they do across the coastal plain.
Hunting low over still water
This bat needs open, still water to work just above the surface for emerging insects: ponds, sloughs, and slow creeks. That’s a narrower niche than it sounds, since a bat built for skimming calm water doesn’t do as well over fast-moving channels or open surf.
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.
