The two sexes of Myotis dasycneme roost separately for most of the year. In the months of activity, they mostly use buildings, sometimes hollow trees or bat boxes, whereas during hibernation artificial or natural underground sites are used (Haarsma and Tuitert, 2009). Nursery colonies may number hundreds of bats while hibernacula rarely host over 30 bats. Pond Myotis forage selectively over lakes and rivers. In Poland, Ciechanowski et al. (2017) showed that the distances covered from the roost to the foraging sites by lactating females were shorter (median 2.9 km) than in pregnant (median 11.4 km) females and that the former preferred rivers over lakes, while the opposite pattern was found in lactating females. Prey is mostly taken by trawling and comprises chironomids (both adults and pupal stages) as well as caddisflies, plus several other arthropod species, including the water veneer Acentria ephemerella (Ciechanowski and Zapart 2012, Krüger et al. 2014). Bats may cover > 300 km in seasonal migrations (Hutterer et al. 2005), but genetic data suggest male migration and philopatry in females (Andersen et al. 2019). A decreasing trend in habitat availability and quality (underground sites, roosts in buildings, water quality at foraging sites, light pollution and landscape connectivity) has been recorded over much of the species' range.

The distribution of Myotis dasycneme in Europe is patchy and spans between 61° and 44°N, from the Netherlands, Belgium, and north of France east and northeast to Denmark, Sweden, the Baltic region, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, and Romania (Verkem et al. 2003, Rotsaert et al 2017, Haarsma et al. 2019). The southernmost record available is for the Bijambare reserve near Sarajevo, in Bosnia – Herzegovina (Eurobats Record of the 24th AC Meeting, 2019), apart from bat detector observations, and skulls of unknown epoch (possibly recent) retrieved in the Varteshka Cave, all from Bulgaria (Popov and Lakovski 2019). Present, yet probably rare and deserving further investigation, in Austria (G. Reiter, pers. comm.). The range of altitudes where this species can be found varies between 0 and 1,500 m asl. The AOO and EOO have not been estimated, but based on the available locality records, they are expected to greatly exceed the threshold for a threatened category.

Outside Europe, the species occurs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Manchuria (Strelkov and Iljin 1990, Golovatch et al. 2018).

Protected in all European range states, Myotis dasycneme is included in Annexes II and IV of the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive, requiring full protection and designation of Special Areas of Conservation for its conservation. The conservation status reported in 2013-2018 by the European Union according to art. 17 of the above-mentioned Directive was unfavourable-inadequate for all biogeographic zones, and both population and habitat prospects were classified as poor in all but one of these zones (it was "unknown" in the continental zone). 530 Natura 2000 sites include this species in their designations (EEA 2023). The species is also protected by the EUROBATS Agreement and the Bern Convention in the Member States. It has been the target of an Action Plan (Limpens et al. 2000) and specific conservation projects such as LIFE16 NAT/EE/000710 in Estonia. The survival of this species is highly dependent on the preservation of both its roosting sites (underground sites as well as buildings) and its preferred foraging water sites, riparian vegetation and surrounding forests.