Animals & Plants of Mammoth Cave National Park

The 1 animals, plants, and fungi you can find at Mammoth Cave National Park, with sizes, diets, and whether you should worry. See the full park guide at Mammoth Cave National Park.

Mammoth Cave is the longest cave system on Earth, four hundred miles of passages under Kentucky hills. Its marquee resident is the little brown bat, which roosts in the cave by day and hunts insects by night. The forest that grows above the cave feeds the insects the bats eat.

Anything here that bites?

Bites if handled

• Little brown bat: Very low risk.

Everything else on this page is harmless. What each group means.

• Mammal

  Little brown bat

  Myotis lucifugus

  A tiny brown flyer that hunts insects over water at dusk and sleeps in caves and barns, eating half its own weight in bugs each night.