Juneau leads Alaska’s little brown myotis records with 252, and 90 of those come from Mendenhall Wetlands State Game Refuge. More reports reach from Skagway and Ketchikan through Fairbanks and the Matanuska-Susitna Valley to Kodiak Island, very different corners of the state, from the Southeast Panhandle’s Inside Passage through the Interior and Southcentral to Kodiak’s Southwest coast. Alaska now holds more recorded little brown myotis than any other US state, a distinction the species is fighting to keep amid a crisis wiping out colonies elsewhere.
Little brown myotis roost anywhere they find warmth and darkness, from caves and hollow trees to barns, attics, and the gaps behind building siding, with pregnant females gathering into nursery colonies each spring. At night they hunt moths, mosquitoes, and midges low over ponds and slow rivers, tracking prey by echolocation rather than sight.
Records peak from June through August, the active season between spring emergence and fall’s move into hibernation. White-nose syndrome, the cold-loving fungus that has devastated hibernating colonies across the eastern and central US, hasn’t reached Alaska yet, which is part of why the state’s colonies are being watched so closely as a stronghold for the species.
Full species profile
