Move over, Fat Bear Week. A bat beauty contest is now stepping up to the plate.
The Bureau of Land Management has hosted the online competition since 2019 to raise awareness about the animal's ecological importance. The federal agency posts photos of bats on its Facebook and Instagram accounts, and then asks people to vote for the cutest one. The bats are part of wild populations living on public lands, and are photographed by agency staff.
The first round of voting began Thursday and pitted a Townsend's big-eared bat named "Sir Flaps-A-Lot" from Utah against a hoary bat fittingly named "Hoary Potter" from Oregon. The contest coincides with the start of Bat Week, during which bat experts across the country and the world hold educational events celebrating the only flying mammal.
RELATED STORY | Mama bear wins: Grazer defeats Chunk, who killed her cub, for Fat Bear Week crown
The defining feature of a Townsend's big-eared bat is, unsurprisingly, its ears, which can reach a length of 1.5 inches (38 millimeters). The large ears funnel sound into the ear canal, provide lift during flight and help with temperature regulation, the Bureau of Land Management said in its Facebook post presenting the first two contestants.
Hoary bats, meanwhile, are known for swift flight and wrapping themselves in their own tails to mimic leaves and hide from predators, the agency said. Due to this attribute, it estimated Hoary Potter would be "the perfect candidate for seeker on this year's Quidditch team," referring to the game in Harry Potter that is played on flying brooms.
Neither species are federally listed as endangered. However, Oregon has included them on its list of species needing conservation attention, and Utah has done the same for the Townsend's big-eared bat.
Emma Busk, the BLM wildlife technician who photographed Hoary Potter, said bats around the world play a key role in the environment by eating insects and pollinating flowers and fruits. But they're increasingly facing the threats of habitat loss, disease and light pollution, and are often misunderstood as scary disease carriers, she said.
"There's a lot of fear and misconceptions around bats," she said, noting that people often associate rabies with the animal. "But less than 1% of all bat populations actually carry rabies, and the bat-to-human disease transmission is actually really low."
Busk is rooting for Hoary Potter in the hopes that an Oregon bat will win the beauty contest for a third time. Last year, "William ShakespEAR," a female Townsend's big-eared bat from southern Oregon whom Busk also photographed, claimed the crown. And in 2022, a canyon bat named "Barbara" similarly hailing from southern Oregon was declared the winner.
"Our effort every year is to just collect as much data as we can on the species in our resource area, so that we do know how to better protect them moving forward," Busk said.
The beauty contest will continue in rounds over the next week. It's timed to wrap up on Halloween next Thursday when the winner will be announced.
