Blobfish Voted Ugliest Animal in the World, New Zealand's Kakapo in Second Place (SEE VIDEOS)

Source: Youtube/NSECUK

New Zealand's Kakapo, a critically endangered species, has been named the second ugliest animal in the world in an online competition.

The blobfish of the Pacific was voted the world's ugliest animal in a contest organised by the Ugly Animal Preservation Society. The winner of the ugliest animal competition was revealed at Newcastle's British Science Festival.

Organisers of the awareness campaign said it was meant to highlight the need for conserving less "classically charismatic" creatures. The blobfish, a gelatinous creature that looked like a grumpy, old man, bested other animals in the running for the title of the Word's Ugliest.

Simon Watt, founder of the Ugly Animal Society, has requested eleven comedians and celebrities to promote each creature as the ugliest in the world using short videos posted on YouTube. The videos had more than 80,000 views and each one was rated based on the number of people who clicked the "Like" button of each entry. (SEE MORE VIDEOS and read the rest of the story below)

Source: Youtube/BBC

New Zealand's Kakapo was once described by British writer Stephen Fry as a bird that looked like an "old Victorian gentleman." The YouTube video promoting the "ugliness" of the Kakapo described the animal as "very human looking." The Kakapo is ugly because the bird looked like a human's face placed on top of a bird's body.

New Zealand's Kakapo is a flightless bird. The second ugliest animal in the world is not afraid of predators which make it an easy target. Its numbers have dwindled down to only 126.

Mr Watt presented an official certificate naming the blobfish as the world's ugliest animal to Paul Foot, a British comedian who appeared in a video to showcase the ugliness of the blobfish. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration described the blobfish as a "big, blobby tadpole, just a mass of pale, jelly-like flesh with puffy, loose skin, a big nose and beady, staring eyes."

The U.S. agency said the food of the blobfish remained a mystery because no one had seen them eat. However, the British Association said that the world's ugliest animal feeds on lobsters and crabs. The blobfish can be found off the Tasmanian and Southeastern Australian coast.