13 Types of Bats in South Dakota (and How to Identify Each One)
October 23, 2026
Step outside on a summer evening almost anywhere in South Dakota and you’re likely sharing the sky with more bats than you’d guess. According to South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks, 13 different species of bats call South Dakota home, ranging from tiny cave-dwelling myotis to solitary tree bats that migrate thousands of miles each fall. Some are common enough to nest in a garage or church attic; others survive only in a handful of Black Hills caves.
This guide walks through all 13 types of bats in South Dakota, covering what each one looks like, where it roosts, and why a few of them are now at the center of one of the state’s most urgent wildlife conservation stories. Whether a bat is swooping over a Sioux Falls streetlight or clinging to limestone deep inside a Black Hills mine, there’s a good chance it fits one of the profiles below.
1. Big Brown Bat
The big brown bat (Eptesicus fuscus) is the species most South Dakotans have actually seen up close, usually because it slipped into an attic, barn, or gable vent. It’s a commensal species, meaning it has adapted to live alongside people, and it’s found in buildings throughout the state rather than being confined to any single region.
This bat has a wingspan that can stretch close to a foot across, dark brown fur, and a taste for beetles that makes it genuinely useful around farms. Bird Watching HQ notes that its favorite target is the cucumber beetle, a notorious agricultural pest, which is why some South Dakota farmers install bat boxes to encourage big browns to stick around. Unlike most of the state’s bats, big brown bats hibernate right here through winter instead of migrating, often tucking into the same building or cave every year. Homeowners dealing with an unexpected colony in the walls should check residential zoning rules in South Dakota before attempting removal, since bats carry legal protections that differ from typical nuisance wildlife.
2. Little Brown Bat (Little Brown Myotis)
The little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) is South Dakota’s other classic “neighborhood bat,” small enough to fit in a coffee mug yet capable of astonishing pest control. Weighing barely half an ounce with a wingspan of only about three inches, it roosts in sheltered spots such as human structures, woodpiles, tree hollows, and occasionally caves.
Its real claim to fame is its appetite. CP Bat Mitigation cites the South Dakota Bat Working Group’s Wildlife Division Report showing this species can consume up to 600 mosquitoes in a single hour, which explains why backyards near active colonies tend to have noticeably fewer biting insects. Anyone comparing notes with the types of mosquitoes found in South Dakota will quickly understand why this bat is considered one of the state’s most valuable pest-control allies.
Pro Tip: South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks regularly hosts bat appreciation events where families build and take home their own bat house, a simple way to give little brown bats and big brown bats a safe roost away from attics and sheds.
3. Hoary Bat
The hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus) is the largest bat species recorded in South Dakota, with frosted brown, orange, and gray fur that gives it a distinctly “hoary” or frost-tipped look. According to the South Dakota Bat Working Group, it’s a solitary tree-roosting bat found throughout the state during its yearly migration rather than a year-round resident.
Hoary bats favor mayflies, moths, and dragonflies, and they cover enormous distances between summer range and wintering grounds, sometimes overlapping with populations tracked in Montana’s bat surveys to the west. Rather than hibernating through South Dakota’s harsh winters, hoary bats simply leave.
Key Insight: Not every South Dakota bat hibernates. Tree-roosting species like the hoary bat, eastern red bat, and silver-haired bat take what one wildlife writer called “the snowbird route,” flying south each fall instead of holing up in a cave for winter.
4. Eastern Red Bat
The eastern red bat (Lasiurus borealis) is easy to spot once identified, thanks to its rusty-orange fur and habit of roosting alone among tree leaves rather than in caves or buildings. It’s a solitary, tree-dwelling species that shows up across South Dakota during migration season rather than settling into a fixed year-round range.
Because it depends on foliage rather than cave shelter, the eastern red bat is one of the species most vulnerable to habitat loss when shelterbelts and woodlots disappear from the prairie. Bird enthusiasts who track this species often compare notes with observers documenting bat populations across the border in North Dakota, where the same migratory corridor runs through similar grassland-and-woodland habitat.
5. Silver-haired Bat
The silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) gets its name from dark fur tipped in silvery white, giving it a frosted appearance similar to the hoary bat but on a smaller frame. The South Dakota Bat Working Group lists it as a tree-roosting species of concern that migrates through the state each year.
Silver-haired bats are among the more commonly reported species in areas like Badlands National Park, where they share territory with big brown bats despite the park’s limited water sources. Some individuals have also been observed flying earlier in the evening than most South Dakota bats, occasionally even at dusk in daylight-adjacent hours. Researchers studying wintering populations sometimes cross-reference sightings with data from California bat surveys, since some silver-haired bats winter along the Pacific coast.
6. Fringed Myotis
The fringed myotis (Myotis thysanodes) is a Black Hills specialist, roosting in caves, abandoned mines, and tree snags scattered through the region’s pine and oak woodlands. It carries “species of special concern” status in South Dakota, reflecting how narrow and specific its habitat needs really are.
The name comes from a fringe of short, wiry hairs along the membrane between its hind legs, a feature Bird Watching HQ notes may help the bat catch prey mid-flight. Its diet leans heavily on beetles, and it favors desert shrublands and sagebrush grasslands in addition to forested slopes. The Black Hills region it depends on overlaps with land managed under public land grazing programs in South Dakota, which makes habitat coordination between ranchers and wildlife managers especially important for this species.
7. Long-legged Myotis
The long-legged myotis (Myotis volans) rounds out the Black Hills cave community alongside the fringed myotis and little brown bat, favoring rock crevices, mine shafts, and forested canyons at higher elevations. Its longer legs and denser fur help it survive cooler mountain nights than its lowland relatives typically tolerate.
This species is easy to overlook because it closely resembles several other South Dakota myotis in flight, and field identification usually requires a close look at fur color and wing shape rather than a passing glance. Comparisons with myotis populations documented in Alabama’s bat surveys show just how differently the same genus can adapt, from humid southern forests to dry Black Hills canyons.
8. Northern Long-eared Bat (Myotis septentrionalis)
The northern long-eared bat (Myotis septentrionalis) carries more regulatory weight than any other bat on this list. It’s the only bat species in South Dakota that also appears on the federal threatened or endangered list, joining a short roster of just four state mammals with that status, alongside the black-footed ferret, gray wolf, and swift fox, as noted by CP Bat Mitigation’s review of South Dakota’s protected species.
Its status has only gotten more serious over time. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reclassified the species from threatened to endangered in March 2023 after white-nose syndrome drove population declines of more than 90 percent in under a decade. Anyone tracking this bat’s range often looks at how it fares farther east, including populations monitored across New York’s bat conservation programs, where the disease first took hold.
Important Note: White-nose syndrome is caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans, which thrives in cold, damp hibernation sites like caves and mines. It has killed millions of hibernating bats across North America and is the single biggest threat facing several species on this list.
9. Townsend’s Big-eared Bat
Townsend’s big-eared bat (Corynorhinus townsendii) is unmistakable once seen, with ears nearly as long as its own body. It roosts almost exclusively in caves and abandoned mines, making the Black Hills, riddled with old mining tunnels, prime habitat.
This sensitivity to disturbance is exactly why South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks maintains strict rules around it. State sampling guidelines explicitly prohibit surveys at known maternity or nursery roosts, and any suspected roost discovered during research must be reported immediately so the colony isn’t disturbed. Outdoor enthusiasts exploring Black Hills caves during turkey hunting season in South Dakota are especially likely to cross paths with this species, since both activities concentrate in the same rugged terrain.
10. Western Small-footed Myotis (Myotis ciliolabrum)
The western small-footed myotis (Myotis ciliolabrum) is one of the smallest and least conspicuous bats in the state, with a body barely bigger than a human thumb. It carries a “species of concern” designation in South Dakota, and it was formerly classified under a different scientific name before taxonomists settled on its current one.
This bat favors rocky outcrops, cliff faces, and dry canyon habitat rather than the deep caves preferred by some of its myotis relatives, which means it turns up in some surprisingly exposed roosts. Populations with similar habitat preferences have also been documented in bat surveys across Canada, where the species reaches the northern edge of its range.
11. Evening Bat
The evening bat (Nycticeius humeralis) is the geographic outlier on this list. Of South Dakota’s 13 bat species, it’s the only one absent from the western half of the state, and it’s found instead in the eastern counties, where habitat more closely resembles the woodlands and river bottoms typical of the Midwest and Southeast.
According to a regional wildlife roundup, “all but one (the Evening Bat) can be found in the west,” a distinction that makes range alone a useful identification clue for anyone trying to sort out which small brown bat they’ve spotted. Its range extends much further south and east, overlapping with populations described in guides to bat species found in South Carolina, where it’s considerably more common.
12. Tricolored Bat
The tricolored bat (Perimyotis subflavus) is South Dakota’s smallest bat and one of the easiest to identify once you know what to look for. Each hair on its back has three distinct color bands, and its forearms carry a faint pinkish tint that no other South Dakota species shares.
Unfortunately, this bat has also become a symbol of how fast white-nose syndrome can devastate a population. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports that the disease has caused severe declines that led USFWS to propose listing the tricolored bat as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Females typically form small maternity colonies and give birth to twins, a reproductive pattern that makes recovery painfully slow once numbers drop. Conservationists comparing North American losses to bat declines abroad sometimes point to very different pressures facing species profiled in guides to bat species in Australia, where habitat loss rather than fungal disease drives most population concerns.
13. Long-eared Myotis (Myotis evotis)
The long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis) closes out the list as another Black Hills specialist, marked by ears noticeably longer than most of its myotis relatives, though shorter than Townsend’s big-eared bat. It carries “species of concern” status both in South Dakota and nationally, largely because its known range is so tightly confined to the Black Hills region.
Little is documented about this bat outside its core range, which makes every confirmed sighting valuable to state biologists tracking its population trends. Researchers studying comparable myotis diversity elsewhere often reference broader guides like bat species documented in New Mexico, where several closely related myotis species occupy similar canyon and cliff habitat.
Comparing South Dakota’s Bat Species at a Glance
| Species | Relative Size | Typical Roost | Winter Strategy | Conservation Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Big Brown Bat | Medium-large | Buildings, hollow trees | Hibernates locally | Common |
| Little Brown Bat | Small | Buildings, tree hollows, caves | Hibernates locally | Common, monitored for disease |
| Hoary Bat | Largest in SD | Solitary tree roosts | Migrates south | Common |
| Eastern Red Bat | Medium | Solitary tree foliage | Migrates south | Common |
| Silver-haired Bat | Medium | Tree roosts | Migrates south | Species of concern |
| Fringed Myotis | Small-medium | Caves, mines, tree snags | Hibernates in Black Hills | Species of special concern |
| Long-legged Myotis | Small-medium | Rock crevices, mines | Hibernates in Black Hills | Uncommon |
| Northern Long-eared Bat | Small | Caves, tree bark | Hibernates locally | Federally endangered |
| Townsend’s Big-eared Bat | Medium | Caves, abandoned mines | Hibernates in Black Hills | Sensitive, roost-protected |
| Western Small-footed Myotis | Very small | Rocky cliffs, canyons | Hibernates locally | Species of concern |
| Evening Bat | Small | Trees, buildings (eastern SD only) | Migrates or hibernates regionally | Uncommon in SD |
| Tricolored Bat | Smallest in SD | Leaf clusters, caves | Hibernates locally | Proposed endangered |
| Long-eared Myotis | Small | Black Hills caves, cliffs | Hibernates in Black Hills | Species of concern |
Taken together, these 13 species show just how much variety exists within a single state’s bat community, from mosquito-hungry neighborhood regulars to fragile Black Hills specialists that most residents will never see up close. The broader diversity of bat species worldwide puts South Dakota’s lineup in useful context, since even this small corner of the northern Great Plains hosts everything from migratory tree bats to cave-dependent myotis found almost nowhere else in the state.
South Dakota’s own 2025 bat management plan makes clear that conservation status for these species is actively tracked and updated as new data on white-nose syndrome and population trends comes in. For anyone who spends time in the Black Hills, along a prairie shelterbelt, or just watching the sky over a backyard porch light, that ongoing work is a reminder that South Dakota’s bats, common and rare alike, are worth paying attention to long after the sun goes down.