Our Central California Bats

Twenty species of bats occur within California’s Central Coast Region. Several species are rare in the area, including the Western Small-footed Myotis, a xeric habitat specialist; the Little Brown Bat, a mesic habitat specialist in southern portions of its range (incl. the Central Coast); the Western Mastiff Bat, a cliff-dwelling, riparian-corridor-foraging super-bat; and the "Eastern" Red Bat (Lasiurus borealis). Although not yet detected during our surveys, the Eastern Red Bat has been documented by chiropterologists Pat Brown and Bill Rainey during their studies of bats on the Channel Islands.

A 21st Central California bat species that is not found in the Central Coast region, the Spotted Bat, occurs in the foothills and canyons of the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada eastward into high-elevation deserts.

The most exciting results of our survey so far are the confirmations of the regular occurrence of two “free-tailed” bats, Pocketed and Big Free-tailed Bats, and the discovery of and widespread distribution in Central California of the Western Yellow Bat (Dasypterus xanthinus), a species known primarily in California from its southern deserts and especially palm-laden oases. Previously, the species was not recorded along the Pacific Coast north of Los Angeles County nor from the San Joaquin Valley, where it has become, if not common, a regular and widespread species.

Here’s a list of all of our 21 *Central California bats with a few notes about each, including their key features:

*Data primarily from Fresno, Inyo, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Monterey, San Bernardino, and Tulare counties.

Here’s a link to our Key to California’s Central Coast Bats