Miserable looking Australian blobfish outpolls NZ's kakapo to be named world's ugliest animal

Updated

A slimy pink Australian fish which resembles a grumpy and obese old man with a bulbous nose has been voted the world's ugliest animal.

The blobfish, which lives in deep waters off the southern Australian coast, has been named as the mascot of the British-based Ugly Animal Preservation Society, which aims to protect the world's weird and wonderful creatures.

More than 3,000 people contributed to an online poll aimed at raising awareness of unsightly species that play an important role in the ecological web.

Living at depths of up to one kilometre, the blobfish or Psychrolutes marcidus is capable of enduring otherwise crushing pressures at great depth, but is becoming a casualty of deep-sea trawling.

The British Science Association announced the results at an annual festival in Newcastle, north-eastern England.

"It was a clear winner, snatching 795 votes," spokeswoman Coralie Young said.

The runner-up was New Zealand's kakapo, a rare flightless owl-like parrot, and 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 goes under the less-than-scientific moniker of "scrotum frog".

"It's a light-hearted way to make people think about conservation," Ms Young said.

The blobfish's reward is to be enshrined as the official mascot of the Ugly Animal Preservation Society, a loose association of stand-up comedians who humorously champion endangered but visually unappealing species.

"The Ugly Animal Preservation Society is dedicated to raising the profile of some of Mother Nature's more aesthetically challenged children," it says on its website.

"The panda gets too much attention."

ABC/AFP

Topics: animals-and-nature, animals, animal-science, conservation, offbeat, human-interest, australia

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