What stunning bats! They are Austin bats only in passing — the females migrate from what could be their wintering grounds in the high pine forests of Mexico’s Sierra Madre, up through Arkansas to their summer range in the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, the Northeast. There they bear twin pups, and in the fall they come back through Austin on their migration south again. The males tend to migrate up and down the Rockies.
Here’s a female found disoriented and emaciated on the University of Texas campus one spring — what an honor it was to nurse her back to health and get her released in time to resume her migration.