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.
Massachusetts holds just 8 records since 2000, six of them from Berkshire, Worcester, and Hampshire counties in the western and central part of the state. The dated ones fall in February, April, and May, too few to show a seasonal pattern.
Full species profile
