Tricolored bats are in serious trouble range-wide, driven down by white-nose syndrome, and Texas’s own numbers reflect that: NatureServe rates the species S2, Imperiled, in the state, well below the Least Concern label that described the species before the disease arrived. All 401 Texas records come from GBIF-linked survey and specimen data rather than iNaturalist photographs, which fits a tiny bat that roosts in tree foliage and culverts and is rarely seen well enough to photograph.
Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, Padre Island National Seashore, and Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, all coastal refuges, anchor the record cluster, likely because researchers doing bat-roost or acoustic surveys have concentrated effort there rather than because the species is coastal by nature; tricolored bats range across wooded habitat statewide. Records peak in April, which lines up with spring emergence from winter roosts, and taper through the rest of the year. With disease pressure this severe, a documented Texas record now carries more weight than the raw count alone suggests.
Full species profile
