Every 8 to 1O days hibernating individuals awaken to spend an hour or more flying about or to join a small cluster of active bats elsewhere in the cave before returning to hibernation. Limestone caves are used for winter hibernation. The preferred caves have a temperature averaging 37 degrees to 43 degrees Fahrenheit in midwinter, and a relative humidity averaging 87 percent. Summer records are rather scarce. A few individuals have been found under bridges and in old buildings, and several maternity colonies have been found under loose bark and in the hollows of trees.
Summer foraging by females and juveniles is limited to riparian and floodplain areas.
Creeks are apparently not used if riparian trees have been removed. Males forage over floodplain ridges and hillside forests and usually roost in caves. Foraging areas average 11.2 acres per animal in midsummer. Some winter hibernacula have been rendered unsuitable as a result of blocking or impeding air flow into the caves and thereby changing the cave's climate. The Indiana bat is nearly extinct over most of its former range in the northeastern states, and since 195O, the major winter colonies in caves of West Virginia, Indiana, and Illinois have disappeared.