The species is widely distributed in flat and mountain forests and forest-steppe. The species roosts in tree hollows in the summer and is known to occasionally breed in houses on Honshu (Abe et al. 2005). In continental part of the range it will also roost in rock cracks as well. It hibernates in various underground shelters including caves. It feeds on flying insects low above ground and forest rivers.

This species ranges from the forested Altai Mountains in Kazakhstan eastwards through Siberia, Cisbaikalia, Transbaikalia, and Lake Baikal to the Ussuri region of Russia, and southwards in to Mongolia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Republic of Korea, and to Sakhalin Island (Russia) and Japan (Bobrinskiy et al. 1965, Tiunov 1997, Botvinkin 2002, Kawai 2009, Zhigalin and Khritankov 2014, Zhigalin et al. 2019). In Japan, the species is found on Honshu and Hokkaido (Abe et al. 2005). In Mongolia it is known from northern mountain habitats in the Ikh Hyangan Mountain Range (Bannikov 1954). The northern extent of the species is ca. 53–55˚ N Latitude.

It occurs in protected areas throughout its range. In Japan. M. i. Yezoensis is listed as Endangered, M. i. Hosonoi as Vulnerable, and M. i. Fujiensis as Near Threatened on the Japanese Red List.