Indiana’s 30 southeastern myotis records belong mostly to one stretch of cave country: Lawrence County, in the state’s karst-rich south, holds 26 of them, and the nature preserves around Donaldson Cave anchor the rest. This is a small bat of bottomland forest and still water, living at the northern edge of its range, and in Indiana its record is largely historical.
A cave bat at the range’s edge
Southeastern myotis roost in caves, hollow trees, and sometimes culverts or bridges, always near the slow water they skim for insects after dark. Indiana’s southern karst belt gave them winter shelter, and the February and March records come from exactly that setting: biologists counting hibernating bats underground. The summer records bunch in August, when nursery colonies break up and young bats take wing over the river bottoms.
A state rank that stings
NatureServe ranks the species SH in Indiana, possibly extirpated, meaning it’s known from historical records but hasn’t been confirmed in the state lately. That isn’t the same as gone. A six-gram bat that hunts after dark over quiet water is easy to miss without a targeted survey, and Indiana’s southern caves and bottomlands still look the part. What the rank does say is that no recent record has proven the bat still breeds here.
What would change the picture
A fresh, documented record from the Lawrence County cave country or the lower White River bottoms would reset the state’s understanding overnight. Globally the species is considered secure, so the Indiana question isn’t the survival of the species. It’s whether the state’s slice of the range is still occupied.
