Just 7 Maine records since 2000 exist for the little brown myotis, a bat that was once among the most frequently recorded in the Northeast before a fungal disease emptied its winter colonies.
Summer nights over Maine’s lakes and slow rivers
This bat hunts moths, mosquitoes, and midges low over open water, so Maine’s central lakes region and the slow rivers threading the North Woods make good summer hunting ground. It roosts by day in barns, camp attics, and behind loose siding, the same kind of building cover that made it a familiar sight around lakeside cabins before its numbers fell.
A disease that hit the Northeast hardest
White-nose syndrome, a cold-loving fungus, reached the Northeast not long after its 2006 discovery in New York and spread through the hibernating colonies this bat depends on to survive winter. Maine’s hibernating bats sit inside that hard-hit region, and the state’s thin current record count likely reflects the same losses documented at hibernation sites across the eastern United States.
Status in Maine
NatureServe ranks the little brown myotis S5, secure, in Maine, and it’s native to the state, though that rank reflects the wider dataset more than the steep losses recorded at eastern hibernation sites since the disease arrived.
Full species profile
