Southeastern myotis records in Louisiana’s open databases number 72, a small tally for a bat that depends on very specific roosts. The count reflects how few of those roosts observers have found and checked, not how many bats actually use the state’s swamps.
A cave bat in a state with almost no caves
Across most of its range this bat roosts in caves, but Louisiana has almost none of the limestone caves the species prefers farther east. Here it falls back on hollow trees instead, and the Atchafalaya Basin’s ancient bald cypress and tupelo, many with basal hollows large enough to hold hundreds of bats, fill that role. Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve’s bottomland hardwood swamp offers the same kind of hollow-tree shelter closer to New Orleans.
Hunting low over still water
This bat forages just above the surface of sloughs, bayous, and flooded backswamp, picking off mayflies and other insects that hatch from standing water. That low, slow flight path only works over calm, open water, which is exactly what the Atchafalaya’s backswamp and Kisatchie National Forest’s spring-fed streams provide.
Status in Louisiana
The southeastern myotis is native to Louisiana and carries a NatureServe rank of S3, vulnerable, in the state.
