Dead tree in remote NC is hiding colony of rarely seen creatures, biologists say

Mark Price, The Charlotte Observer on Jun 28, 2026

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A winged creature not caught in North Carolina for more than a decade has been rediscovered, and the circumstances resemble Halloween decorations.

Deep in the 531,148-acre Nantahala National Forest stands a towering and twisted hemlock that appears to be dead, but is very much alive on the inside with a colony of bats.

Specifically, Indiana bats, a rare species known to communicate in the night with eerie “clicking” sounds.

“Twenty-four 24 bats were counted. This is the first Indiana bat maternity roost found in the state in 14 years, so it was a huge conservation win,” the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission told The Charlotte Observer.

“Indiana bats commonly roost under loose bark on dead trees, so this tree fit what we would expect. The tracking team searched on foot for three long days before finding the roost, which included an 11-mile hike on the second day.”

The species is listed as endangered and has been considered near extinction. “The current population has declined by half compared to when the species was listed as endangered,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reports.

Indiana bats navigate and find insect prey by producing sound waves at frequencies above human hearing, experts say.

The species went into decline for a number of reasons, including pesticides and a disease known as white-nose syndrome, federal officials say.

A chance catch in a net strung across a gravel road revealed some Indiana bats were still to be found in the state. Five “reproductive” females were caught about 20 miles west of Robbinsville, in Graham County, state officials said.

“Two bats were radio-tagged and tracked by biologists from Brown Environmental Consulting and the U.S. Forest Service about a mile from the capture site to a dead eastern hemlock tree where the two radio-tagged bats were roosting,” N.C. Bat Biologist Katherine Etchison said in an email.

“Mountainous terrain blocks the radio signal, and when you couple that with the fact that bats are highly mobile and can fly several miles to their roost, it makes radio tracking an incredibly challenging task! We were thrilled that the tracking team found the roost.”

Plans are underway to monitor the colony, officials said. The eastern hemlock the bats inhabit is 60 feet tall and likely died “due to the invasive hemlock wooly adelgid,” state officials said.

Robbinsville is about a 210-mile drive west from uptown Charlotte.

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