The tricolored bat is one of the smallest bats in the country, weighing barely more than a couple of pennies, with fur banded dark, then pale, then dark again that gives it a frosted look. White-nose syndrome, a cold-loving fungus that spreads through hibernating colonies, has devastated this species across the East, and Massachusetts’ NatureServe rank of S1, critically imperiled, reflects just how far its numbers have fallen here.
All 43 of the state’s records come from GBIF rather than photographs, and more than half of those cluster in a single February data point, likely a hibernation-site survey rather than a genuine seasonal peak. The named coastal refuges, Cape Cod National Seashore, Monomoy National Wildlife Refuge, and Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, mark summer foraging range far more than the caves and mines this bat depends on to survive winter.
Full species profile
