Montana’s occurrence databases hold 41 records of the western small-footed myotis, ranking near the bottom among the roughly 79 mammals tracked in this Montana dataset. A bat this small, roosting alone in a rock crack, is genuinely hard to find no matter how much habitat it actually occupies.
Built for Montana’s badlands and broken rock
This bat belongs to dry, fractured rock country wherever it turns up in Montana, the eroded badlands and cutbanks along the Missouri River corridor as much as the canyon walls and talus slopes tucked into the state’s mountain valleys. It wedges into narrow cracks in cliff faces, old mine openings, and gaps in weathered rimrock, so its Montana range tracks broken rock rather than any single region of the state. Where the ground stays soft and unbroken, prairie grassland or a mountain meadow alike, this bat has nowhere to roost.
Detected only in the warm months, then it vanishes
Every Montana record here falls between May and September, with nothing the rest of the year. That’s not because the bat leaves the state; it’s because this species hibernates through winter in caves, mines, and rock crevices, usually alone or in a handful together rather than in an obvious colony, and those hidden winter roosts almost never get surveyed. Cold doesn’t fully shut it down even in the warmer months either, since it can drop into a deep, energy-saving rest on cool nights and rouse again once conditions warm.
Status in Montana
The western small-footed myotis is native across its Montana range, and NatureServe ranks it S4, apparently secure. Because it roosts alone or in tiny groups tucked into rock cracks and old mine openings rather than in large, countable colonies, the low record count here likely understates how widely it actually uses Montana’s dry, broken country.
Full species profile
