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  • Home
  • About Us
    • The ABS
    • Principles
    • ABS Extended Executive
    • Flying-Fox Expert Group
    • Contact
  • About bats
    • Our bats
    • Bat Fact Sheets
    • Species List
    • BatMap
    • White-Nose Syndrome
    • Bat Handling Guidelines
  • Grants
    • Regular ABS Grants
    • Paddy Pallin Foundation-sponsored ABS grants
  • News
    • Press Room
    • Newsletter
    • Upcoming Events
  • Get involved
    • Members
    • Join Us
    • Bat Forums
    • Social Media
    • Donations
  • Events
    • IBRC 2025
    • Bat Nights
  • Resources
    • Bat Biogeography
    • Bat Conservation Links
    • Bat Fact Sheets
    • Bat Resources for Kids
    • Install a Microbat House
    • Bat Tattooing
    • Bat Calls of the Solomon Islands
    • Flying-Fox Heat Stress Forecaster
    • PIT Tag Register
    • IUCN Guidelines for Field Hygiene
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YOUR CART

Discover the national and local distribution of every species of bat in Australia. Distribution maps have been developed by leading bat experts and are updated and maintained by utilising the collective knowledge of the members of the Australasian Bat Society.
Use the buttons below to  explore the distributions of Australian bat species, obtain a bat species list for your area, or download species distribution maps in different formats.

BatMap Applications

BATMAP VIEWER
BaT FINDER

BatMap Downloads

JPG Maps
PDF MAPS
KMZ MAP
ShapeFile
BatMap species distribution maps are free to download for ABS Members. Maps are also free to download for Non-ABS Members but are encouraged to donate to the ABS, particularly if the maps are being used for commercial purposes, or a funded project.​ All maps are licenced under Creative Commons.*

Maps are updated as any distribution changes occur. Advanced users can also access source maps directly via ArcGIS Online.

​​Some KMZ files will not display properly in Google Earth. Use an alternative KMZ viewer such as ArcGIS Earth or Google earth online.

Distribution Categories​

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Where applicable, species distribution maps contain the following categories:
​
Current Range - area where the species is currently known or likely to occur. This is the area that you would typically see on a distribution map in a natural history publication.

Possible Range - area where the species may occur; however, it is uncertain that the species actually occurs there. Current records in these areas are doubtful.

Previous Range - area where the species was known to occur but there is now reasonable doubt that the species is extant in the area.
​

Extralimital Records - confirmed or known records of individuals of the species outside the current range.

More detailed descriptions of each of the  distribution categories are provided here.


Species

Australian Bat Taxa is BatMap's sister project. Discover what bat species occur in each State and Territory of Australia.

Map status

To see when individual species maps were updated click here.

Reliability & Accuracy

Distribution maps were based on the collective knowledge and experience of Australia’s bat experts. Experts also utilised other sources of information that was available to them such as unpublished literature and data. In some areas of Australia, highly reliable information was readily available. Distributions in those areas were based on objective opinion and, spatially, are relatively accurate. In other areas, information is sparse or non-existent. Unavoidably, therefore, distributions in those areas were based to some degree on the subjective opinion of experts, and the resulting ​accuracy and reliability of mapping in those areas are lower. Distribution maps are updated as new information becomes available; therefore, the overall reliability and accuracy of maps will improve over time.

Contribute to BatMap

If you think you have new information that you want to contribute to one or more of the species distributions maps, please email [email protected]. We will send you instructions how to contribute.

Citations and Credits

For individual species maps follow this example:
Australasian Bat Society - BatMap. Austronomus australis at http://ausbats.org.au/batmap. Accessed 21/04/2021.

For all species maps follow this example:
​Australasian Bat Society - BatMap. http://ausbats.org.au/batmap. Accessed 21/04/2021.

The following publication is also available:
Milne Damian J., Reardon Terry B., Ford Greg (2023) BatMap – authoritative distribution maps for Australian bats. Australian Mammalogy.  https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23005

​A number of people were responsible for making BatMap happen. You can see who they are here.

* BatMap species distribution maps are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence, which means you can do whatever you like with the maps, so long as you give appropriate credit, and indicate if you change the maps in any way.

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Copyright Australasian Bat Society Inc. 2021