The Bureau of Land Management hosted their fifth annual Bat Beauty Contest to raise awareness for the ecological importance of bats. The bats participating live on public lands and are completely wild. Agency staff submit photos of the bats to their Facebook and Instagram accounts, and then the public can vote on their favorite.
The first round of voting took place on Oct. 25 with “Sir-Flaps-A-Lot,” a Townsend’s big-eared bat from Utah vs. “Hoary Potter,” a Hoary bat from Oregon. In addition to the voting, many different educational events are held throughout the week by both national and international experts.
Bats are an incredibly important group of animals. They control insect populations and pollinate flowers, but many species are declining due to habitat loss, light pollution and diseases like White-Nose Syndrome.
“There’s a lot of fear and misconceptions around bats,” said Emma Busk, a BLM wildlife technician. “But less than 1% of all bat populations actually carry rabies, and the bat-to-human disease transmission is actually really low.”
“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 finished.
“Hoary Potter” has received a lot of attention from Oregon residents as Oregon bats have won the beauty contest for the past three years.
Several rounds were voted on throughout the week, and the winner was announced on Oct. 31. “Hoary Potter” defeated “Lestat,” the western small-footed bat from Idaho, in the final round of the contest.
