Keen's long-eared bat (Myotis keenii) COSEWIC assessment and status report: chapter 9

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Special Significance of the Species

M. keenii has one of the most restricted distributions of any North American bat, and most of its geographic range (about 80%) is within Canada. It is the only North American bat with a distributional area confined to the Pacific coast region.  According to van Zyll de Jong and Nagorsen (1994) this distributional pattern suggests that M. keenii may have evolved in a coastal refugium.

A putative old growth coastal forest bat, M. keenii is the only bat species currently listed as an ‘Identified Wildlife Species’ under the Identified Wildlife Management Strategy of the British Columbia Provincial Forest and Range Practices Code^Footnote3.