Mississippi’s occurrence databases hold 86 southeastern myotis records, enough for NatureServe to rank the species S3, vulnerable, in the state. Reports come from Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge’s Delta bottomland wetlands and from Holly Springs and Tombigbee National Forests farther north and east, tracking a bat that needs both a safe daytime roost and slow water to hunt over at night.
Hollow trees standing in for caves
Southeastern myotis normally roost in caves, but Mississippi has very few natural caves anywhere in the state, so in the Delta bottomlands around Yazoo National Wildlife Refuge, this bat likely relies instead on hollow bald cypress and tupelo trees and culverts as substitute roosts, a common workaround for the species across much of the cave-poor Deep South. It then forages low over the Delta’s bayous and oxbow lakes, exactly the still, insect-rich water this bat prefers.
A vulnerable rank tied to specific roosts
Because this bat depends on a fairly narrow set of roost types, whether that’s a genuine cave, a hollow tree, or a bridge culvert, the loss of even a single large roost can affect the reports from an entire area. That specificity is likely part of why NatureServe ranks the species vulnerable in Mississippi even though its 86 records put it in the occasional range rather than the rarest tier of the state’s mammals.
Status in Mississippi
NatureServe ranks the southeastern myotis S3, vulnerable, in Mississippi, and it’s native to the state. That combination, a real presence but a vulnerable one, points to the value of the Delta’s hollow bottomland trees and the state’s scattered natural caves as roosts worth protecting.
