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ANIMAL KINGDOM — If you’ve ever wondered just how ugly some animals can be, the Ugly Animal Preservation Society has announced their winner for their mascot competition. And it looks like a gelatinous version of Ziggy and the legless Jabba the Hutt put together.
The blobfish looks like the name sounds: a slimy blob of a fish with more face than fin. The oddly proportioned animal — it grows to about 12 inches maximum — is a deep-sea dweller off the coasts of Australia and Tasmania. The fish doesn’t have much muscle mass, but scientists believe it manages to eat using its huge mouth and catching tiny crabs and lobsters at the same depth, the British Science Association reported.
Though humans rarely see the fish in its habitat, it does occasionally get caught up in fishing nets along with crustaceans.
The competition’s purpose is “raising the profile of some of Mother Nature’s more aesthetically challenged children,” the organization wrote on its website.
“Our society needs a mascot, one to rival the cute and cuddly emblems of many charities and organisations,” it wrote.
The animals were pitched by comedians in videos and then the organization held an online vote. The blobfish won by 10,000 votes, BBC reported.
“Some would describe it as a bit ugly, but I think the sad face of the blobfish belies a kind and very wise little brain in there,” the blobfish’s champion, comedian Paul Foot said in his video campaign.
Blobfish may have been voted as the ugliest animal, but its runners-up were strange and unattractive in their own ways.
