Behold the 'World's Ugliest Animal' (If You Dare)

Blobfish wins contest to become mascot for conscientious comedy group
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 12, 2013 12:05 PM CDT

It's a perpetually sad-looking, endangered sack of a fish, but the blobfish has reason to rejoice today: it's just been voted the official mascot of the Ugly Animals Preservation Society. The British comedy/conservation group has been holding a public poll to determine the world's ugliest animal, in partnership with the National Science + Engineering Competition, NPR explains. It announced the winner today at the British Science Festival.

"We've needed an ugly face for endangered animals for a long time," says biologist Simon Watt, the society's president for life. "For too long the cute and fluffy animals have taken the limelight, but now the blobfish will be the voice for the mingers who always get forgotten." Coming in second in the voting was the Kakapo, followed by the Axolotl, and the Titicaca water frog—whose name literally translates to "aquatic scrotum." (More blobfish stories.)

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