They went batty for this beauty.
A bat from Oregon named William ShakespEAR won a nationwide beauty contest for the winged mammels.
The female Townsend’s big-eared bat won the annual contest organized by the federal Bureau of Land Management, part of the Interior Department, which oversees one in every 10 acres of land in the U.S., including vast sections of Western states, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported.
The prizeworthy creature, which hails from Butte Falls in Jackson County, was chosen as the winner by social media users, who voted on photos of different species of bats taken in public lands throughout the country.
She was photographed by BLM wildlife technician Emma Busk in Jackson County, which is the home of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Townsend’s big-eared bats are known for their large ears, which measure about half the length of its body, making the animal’s surname “ShakespEAR” fitting.
The contest, which began on Oct. 24 and ended, appropriately, on Halloween, runs during the same time as International Bat Week, in an effort to raise awareness for bat conservation.
Last year, Barbara, a canyon bat from Lake County, Oregon, took home the title, making the state a two-time consecutive winner.
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