Oregon mammals

Townsend's Big-eared Bat in Oregon

Corynorhinus townsendii

Native to Oregon S2 Imperiled in Oregon

Not listed as nonindigenous in Oregon by USGS NAS; native to its Oregon 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 Oregon, by the numbers

Occasional in Oregon 84th most recorded of 178 mammals logged in Oregon

257 occurrence records

73 with iNaturalist photos

Jul 5, 2026 Last seen in Oregon

Records from 2000–2026.

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

Most sightings fall in July.

257 Oregon occurrence records (iNaturalist and GBIF) by month of year, 2000–2026. Shows when the species is recorded, not a guarantee of presence.

Monthly Oregon records (table)

Month	Records
January	8
February	8
March	12
April	34
May	13
June	13
July	74
August	27
September	19
October	19
November	3
December	27

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

Seasonality

Year-round in Oregon, with recorded sightings peaking in July.

Occurrence map

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

257 records mapped · zoom and drag to explore

257 Oregon records mapped

Notable places to look

Park, forest, or monument	iNaturalist records
Oregon Caves National Monument and Preserve	5
Whitman National Forest	1
Lewis and Clark National Historical Park	1

Protected places with the most townsend's big-eared bat sightings, from the USGS Protected Areas Database plus named mountain ranges, good spots to look, not a full breakdown, so they don't sum to the total.

Where it's recorded in Oregon

County	Records
Lane County	74
Clackamas County	30
Umatilla County	26
Jackson County	21
Douglas County	14
Josephine County	11
Deschutes County	10
Malheur County	10
Curry County	10
Union County	6
Harney County	5
Clatsop County	5
13 other counties	35

The complete county distribution, spread across 25 Oregon 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 records bridge Oregon’s Cascade forests and the Deschutes side of the range, where caves, mines, and buildings can provide roosts near feeding habitat. March, May, and September appear as distinct reporting pulses, while the small winter totals likely reflect limited detectability around hibernation sites. Bat records are highly dependent on roost checks and acoustic or capture effort, so they document detections rather than abundance.

Occurrence data from iNaturalist and GBIF.

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 Oregon 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
USGS Protected Areas Databasepublic domainthe named parks, forests, and refuges behind "notable places to look"