The blobfish has won the honor of becoming the official mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.
The blobfish has won the honor of becoming the official mascot for the Ugly Animal Preservation Society.
Announced as the winner of the coveted mascot position at the British Science Festival in Newcastle, the blobfish now also holds the unofficial title of the world’s ugliest animal.
The Society hopes to bring attention to the plight of threatened animals that aren’t cute and cuddly.
Biologist, TV personality, and President of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, Simon Watt said: “We only protect the animals that we relate to because they're cute, like pandas. If extinction threats are as bad as they seem, then focusing just on very charismatic megafauna is completely missing the point.”
The public voted and the other top five ugliest animals were the proboscis monkey that has an unsightly large nose, a flightless parrot called the kakapo, the Titicaca scrotum frog, and the axolotl, which is a salamander that can grow back any limbs it loses.
The blobfish won the contest by nearly 10 thousand votes.
Blobfish live near the south east coast of Australia and Tasmania at depths around 2000 to 4000 feet.
