Who You Calling Ugly?
I recently wrote an article for Discover about ugly animals, using the blobfish as an example. The blobfish is the mascot of the Ugly Animal Society, an organization that tries to get more love (and research funding) for animals that humans don’t think are particularly cute.
But it turns out that the blobfish is ugly only when you take it out of the water. In its own environment, it’s kind of pretty. You can see what it looks like in its own world in this National Geographic article. And, of course, no matter what we think of it, other blobfish likely find at least some members of their kind quite fetching.
I think there’s a lesson here. Maybe two. The first one is a bit obvious: We tend to judge others (blobfish and people, too) by our own standards. That’s probably unavoidable, but it doesn’t hurt to be aware of it. Next time I find myself saying, “Only a mother could love it,” I think I’ll try imagining that I’m that mother.
The other lesson is a little more subtle. When we think about animals, it’s easy to take them out of their ecosystems and think about them as if they were in front of a green screen (or in our front yards). But animals, like all living things, evolved in a particular place under a particular set of conditions, and when we edit out those details and those ecosystems, we can’t possibly understand or value the animals that live there. If we really want to appreciate the beauty in the world, we need to see the whole picture.
So the next time I’m asked to write about ugly animals, I’ll dig (or dive) a little deeper.
’til next time,
Avery