Indiana’s open-data record set holds 101 reports of the western little brown myotis, though only a handful are confirmed, research-grade iNaturalist observations. Most of the total comes from GBIF specimen and survey data. That’s a thin record set for a bat that used to be one of the most frequently recorded in the eastern United States.
Records track water, not the state’s cave country
Every place listed for Indiana sightings sits in the state’s north: Indiana Dunes National Park and Kankakee Sands, both wetland and marsh habitat left behind by old glacial lakes, and Pokagon State Park, set among the moraine-studded lakes of the northeast. That’s exactly the kind of open water a bat hunting moths and midges close to the surface needs. It’s a different part of the state from where the real crisis has played out. Indiana’s hibernating colonies cluster in the caves of the unglaciated south, and white-nose syndrome has hit that cave country hard since the fungus arrived.
An August spike that matches a known pattern
Reports jump sharply in August, the month when little brown myotis across their range gather near cave entrances ahead of winter. Indiana’s record set is too thin to pin that spike on a specific site in the state, but the timing lines up with behavior documented everywhere this bat still hibernates.
Status in Indiana
NatureServe ranks the western little brown myotis S1, critically imperiled, in Indiana, a harder hit than its already-Endangered global status. It’s still native to the state, but its numbers here have fallen further and faster than in most places this bat is tracked.
Full species profile
