It’s almost Halloween. That means it’s time for a bat beauty contest
PORTLAND, Ore. — Move over, Fat Bear Week. There’s a bat beauty contest coming up now.
The Bureau of Land Management has been running the online competition since 2019 to raise awareness about this of the animal 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 that live 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 gray bat aptly named “Hoary Potter” from Oregon. The competition coincides with the start of Bat Week, in which bat experts from across the country and around the world hold educational events celebrating the only flying mammal.
The defining feature of Townsend’s big-eared bat is, not surprisingly, its ears, which can reach a length of 1.5 inches (38 millimeters). The large ears direct sound to the ear canal, provide lift during flight and help regulate temperature, the Bureau of Land Management said in its Facebook post showcasing the first two participants.
Gray bats are known to fly quickly and wrap themselves in their own tails to mimic leaves and hide from predators, the service said. Due to this characteristic, it was estimated that 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 is federally considered endangered. However, Oregon has included them on its list of species requiring conservation attention, and Utah has done the same for Townsend’s long-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 increasingly they are faced with the threats of habitat loss, disease and light pollution, and are often misunderstood as carriers of scary diseases, 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 transmission of disease from bats to humans is actually very low.”
Busk is backing Hoary Potter in hopes that an Oregon bat will win the beauty pageant for a third time. Last year, “William ShakespEAR,” a female Townsend’s big-eared bat from southern Oregon that Busk also photographed, claimed the crown. And in 2022, a canyon bat named “Barbara,” also native to southern Oregon, was declared the winner.
“Our effort each year is to collect as much data as possible about the species in our resource area so we know how to better protect them in the future,” Busk said.
The beauty pageant will continue in rounds over the next week. It’s time to wrap up next Thursday on Halloween, when the winner will be announced.