Sunday, September 15, 2013

Ugly Rules OK

Feel a bit sorry for the blobfish.
The Pacific fish that looks like a bald, grumpy old man, has been named the world's ugliest animal.
More than 3,000 people contributed to an online poll, aimed at raising awareness of unsightly species that play an important role in the global ecological web.
The blobfish, a squidgy pink creature capable of enduring crushing pressures at great depth, is becoming a casualty of deep-sea trawling. It was a clear winner, says Coralie Young of the British Science Assn.
A little surprisingly, NZ's rare flightless parrot, the kakapo, was second ('surprisingly', because in June, the kakapo was voted - in another online poll - as the world's favourite species!) Third was the axolotl, a Mexican amphibian also called the "walking fish".
Other candidates were the proboscis monkey, which has red genitals, a big nose and a pot belly, and the Titicaca water frog, which also suffers under the less-than-scientific moniker of "scrotum frog".
Young: "It's a light-hearted way to make people think about conservation."

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