A unique bat beauty contest on social media for Halloween [Video]

PORTLAND, Ore. –

Move over, Fat Bear Week. A bat beauty contest is now stepping up to the plate.

The U.S. 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.

The defining feature of a Townsend’s big-eared bat is, unsurprisingly, its ears, which can reach a length of 1.5 inches (38 millimetres). …