Every one of West Virginia’s 142 tricolored bat records comes through GBIF rather than a photograph, striking for a species with this large a record count. The entire dataset traces back to hibernaculum surveys and specimen data rather than casual sightings, consistent with NatureServe’s S2 imperiled rank for a bat whose Appalachian populations have been hit hard by white-nose syndrome. Globally the IUCN lists the species Vulnerable, and West Virginia’s karst caves make it one of the more heavily surveyed states for hibernating bat populations.
Records show two matched peaks, April and November, 20 sightings each, bracketing the active season: spring emergence from hibernation and fall swarming before bats return to caves for winter, with a deep summer lull, June and July combine for just 6, when tricolored bats disperse to scattered summer roosts and are harder for surveys to detect.
Full species profile
