Kentucky mammals

Townsend's Big-eared Bat in Kentucky

Corynorhinus townsendii

Native to Kentucky SNR Unranked in Kentucky

Not listed as nonindigenous in Kentucky by USGS NAS; native to its Kentucky range.

IUCN Red List status

LC – Least Concern

Widespread and abundant; not at risk.

Photo: Josh Weaver · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bat roosting on a cave wallPhoto: Brandon McCracken · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bats tucked into a rock crevicePhoto: Hajenga Jeff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domainCluster of hibernating Virginia big-eared bats on a cave ceilingPhoto: Stihler Craig, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domainVirginia big-eared bat hanging from a stone wallPhoto: Pinnacles National Park · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bat roosting in a rocky crevice

Photo: Josh Weaver · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bat roosting on a cave wallPhoto: Brandon McCracken · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bats tucked into a rock crevicePhoto: Hajenga Jeff, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domainCluster of hibernating Virginia big-eared bats on a cave ceilingPhoto: Stihler Craig, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service · Public domainVirginia big-eared bat hanging from a stone wallPhoto: Pinnacles National Park · CC BY 4.0Townsend's big-eared bat roosting in a rocky crevice

Townsend's Big-eared Bat in Kentucky, by the numbers

Rare in Kentucky 54th most recorded of 77 mammals logged in Kentucky

13 occurrence records

9 with iNaturalist photos

Records from 2000–2026.

When to look for the Townsend's Big-eared Bat in Kentucky

Most sightings fall in March.

13 Kentucky occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence. Based on a small number of dated records; the seasonal pattern may not be representative.

Monthly Kentucky records (table)

Month	Records
January	1
February	1
March	3
April	0
May	3
June	1
July	1
August	3
September	0
October	0
November	0
December	0

Monthly townsend's big-eared bat occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) in Kentucky, 2000–2026.

Seasonality

Year-round in Kentucky, with recorded sightings peaking in March, with a smaller rise in May and August.

Occurrence map

Where Townsend's Big-eared Bat has been recorded in Kentucky

13 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

13 Kentucky records mapped

Where it's recorded in Kentucky

County	Records
Lee County	6
Powell County	4
Madison County	1
Wolfe County	1
Washington County	1

The complete county distribution, spread across 5 Kentucky counties. Every occurrence record falls in one county, so these sum to the total. Counties from GBIF and US Census boundaries.

Townsend’s big-eared bat is a cave-obligate specialist, and its 12 Kentucky records cluster tightly around Mammoth Cave National Park and Pennyrile Forest, the heart of the state’s karst country and exactly the kind of cave and cliff-crevice roosting habitat this species depends on.

Reports scatter across the year with no single strong peak, consistent with a species that roosts in the same caves through much of the year rather than migrating long distances. NatureServe has not yet assigned Kentucky’s population a subnational rank, listing it SNR, though its global G4 rank reflects real, if less severe, vulnerability.

Full species profile Townsend's Big-eared Bat Corynorhinus townsendii Size 5.8 cm2.3 in Weight 9–11 g0.3–0.4 oz Lifespan 16 yr View the full profile

More mammals in Kentucky in the atlas

Data & sources

The data and visualizations on this page draw on these open sources:

GBIFCC-BY 4.0occurrence records behind the range map, elevation, and record counts
iNaturalistCC0 / CC-BY / CC-BY-SAobservations, photos, and audio recordings
NatureServe ExplorerCC-BYthe state conservation rank
IUCN Red Listattributed factthe global conservation status
USGS NASpublic domainnative / introduced status
Natural Earthpublic domainthe relief basemap
USFSpublic domainnational-forest boundaries