It’s almost Halloween. Which means it’s time for the bat beauty contest.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Move over, Fat Bear Week. The bat beauty contest is just around the corner.

The Bureau of Land Management has been running an online competition since 2019 to raise awareness of the animal’s ecological significance. The federal agency posts photos of the bats on its Facebook and Instagram accounts and then asks people to vote for the cutest one. The bats are part of a wild population living on public lands and are photographed by agency staff.

The first round of voting began Thursday, pitting Townsend’s long-eared bat “Sir Flop-Lot” from Utah against the appropriately named “Hoary Potter” grizzled bat from Oregon. The competition coincides with the start of Bat Week, during which bat experts across the country and the world host educational events about the only flying mammal.

The distinguishing feature of the Townsend’s long-eared bat is, unsurprisingly, its ears, which can be up to 1.5 inches (38 millimeters) long. The large funnel-shaped ears penetrate the ear canal, provide lift during flight and help regulate temperature, the Bureau of Land Management said in a Facebook post introducing the first two participants.

Hoary bats, meanwhile, are known for flying fast and wrapping themselves in their own tails to mimic leaves and hide from predators, the agency said. Because of this attribute, it is estimated that Gray Potter would be “an ideal candidate to be Seeker on this year’s Quidditch team,” referring to the game in Harry Potter played on flying broomsticks.

Neither species is federally listed as threatened or endangered. However, Oregon has included them on its list of species of conservation concern, and Utah has done the same for the Townsend’s long-eared bat.

Emma Busk, a BLM wildlife specialist who photographed Grizzled Potter, said bats around the world play key roles in the environment by eating insects and pollinating flowers and fruits. But they increasingly face threats from habitat loss, disease and light pollution, and are often misperceived as carriers of terrible diseases, she said.

“There are a lot of fears 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 transmission of the disease from bats to humans is actually very low.”

Busk is rooting for Grizzly Potter in hopes that the Oregon bat will win the beauty pageant for the third time. Last year’s crown was claimed by “William Shakespeare,” a female Townsend’s long-eared bat from southern Oregon, which Busk also photographed. And the 2022 winner was a canyon bat named “Barbara,” also native to southern Oregon.

“Each year we strive 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 contest will continue in several rounds next week. The results are scheduled for Halloween next Thursday, when the winner will be announced.

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