The ugliest animal in the world – the blobfish

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Granted, he doesn't look like George Clooney. But is that a reason for nominating the poor blobfish to be the ugliest animal in the world? In any case, that is precisely what the Ugly Animal Preservation Society (UAPS) in the UK has done. Granted, he doesn't look like George Clooney. But is that a reason for nominating the poor blobfish to be the ugliest animal in the world? In any case, that is precisely what the Ugly Animal Preservation Society (UAPS) in the UK has done.

The society did it with good intentions, however. They want to foster understanding for threatened but „aesthetically challenged“ species, as BBC News reported.

The blobfish that predominantly consists of flabby tissue and belongs to the family of deep-sea bullheads, won the competition with a majority of over 10,000 votes. Because the maximum 30 cm long, inedible fish lacks muscle tone of any kind and it rests like Jell-o on the seabed at depths of up to 1000 m, the jury proclaimed it to be the „ultimate deep-sea couch potato.“ True, the Psychrolutes marcidus moves more by floating than swimming. In addition, it does not reach sexually maturity until the age of 25. This makes it highly vulnerable to overfishing. And the poor blobfish unfortunately lands all too often in deep-sea trawling nets in southeast Australia and Tasmania.
The UAPS President, biologist and TV presenter Simon Watt says it is time to direct the public's attention to the fact that not only sweet looking animals such as pandas and dolphins need our protection. And with this in mind, the choice of the blobfish as ugliest animal in the world is perhaps not all that bad after all.
Personally, I find the frogfish rather ugly. Mother Nature must have had an extremely bad day when she designed this creature. What do you think?