Connecticut’s open databases hold just 80 records of the little brown myotis, and only 3 of those come from iNaturalist. That’s a strikingly thin tally for a bat that was once one of the most familiar in barns and attics across the Northeast.
A collapse that started close to home
The fungus behind white-nose syndrome was first found on hibernating bats near Albany, New York, in the winter of 2006, and it moved through New England’s hibernation sites within a few years. Connecticut sat squarely in that early wave, and the state’s current S1 ranking, critically imperiled, reflects just how hard this bat was hit here compared with its broader global standing.
Records cluster at the edges of hibernation
Connecticut sightings spike in May and again in November, months that line up with bats leaving or returning to their winter hibernation sites rather than any burst of summer activity. Most of the state’s confirmed records come from targeted survey data rather than casual public sightings, a pattern that fits a bat now scarce enough that few people encounter one by chance. When it does forage, it hunts insects low over open water, likely why records include wetland and shoreline sites like Barn Island Wildlife Management Area and Bluff Point State Park.
Status in Connecticut
NatureServe ranks the little brown myotis S1, critically imperiled, in Connecticut, far below its G3 global rank, and it’s still native to the state even though white-nose syndrome has left it one of the rarest bats here.
Full species profile
