The Ugly Animal Preservation Society has just named this gelatinous glob of goo—the blobfish—the world's ugliest animal. The Society aims to draw awareness to at-risk animals who wouldn't normally receive attention because of their extreme ugliness. Check out some of the world's other more supremely hideous creatures. And remember: ugly animals need love, too!
NOAA
Here is an Axoloti salamander swimming in a tank at the Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City. This nasty little thing may just be a few years from extinction, as it's become the victim of draining and deteriorating water quality in its natural lake habitat. If that's not bad enough, non-native species have invaded its home, eating its eggs and larva and stealing its food.
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Like most of the animals in this gallery, ugliness is in the eye of the beholder. This Kakapo, a fat, flightless parrot, is one of only 83 known to be living in the wild of its native New Zealand. But there's good news for this chubby creature! Scientists have been given the go-ahead to inject Kakapos with a vaccination that will hopefully help them fight off the deadly disease that's infected a number of their small fleet.
Is palm oil really worth killing off these goofy-looking guys? The proposcis monkey, pictured here, is only found in the Malaysian island state of Borneo and the expansion of palm oil plantations is cutting into their habitat, causing their numbers to decline sharply in recent years.
Alex Ogle/AFP/Getty
This unsightly amphibian has a funny name to go along with its funny-looking face. But the Lake Titicaca Frog's ugliness is not without purpose. Its folds of skin also function as gills underwater.
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