Townsend’s big-eared bat is one of the most sensitive species in this list. NatureServe ranks it S2, imperiled, in Kansas, well below most of the state’s other bats, because it depends on caves, mines, and old buildings for roosting and is quick to abandon a site if disturbed while hibernating or raising young.
Records here are thin even by bat standards: five total sightings across more than two decades, spread unevenly across March, August, and October, too few and scattered to show any real seasonal pattern. The most recent confirmed record on file dates to August 2011, now well over a decade old, which likely reflects how rarely anyone surveys roost sites rather than a species that’s disappeared.
The named locations, Cheyenne Bottoms, Quivira, and nearby reservoirs, sit in central Kansas prairie country where limestone outcrops and old structures near water could offer roosting cover, though confirming an active roost takes far more effort than a chance daytime sighting.
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