Beauty of Ugly on NATURE

They’re certainly not the pin-ups of the wild kingdom.  Yet from warthogs and tapeworms to vultures and bats, the ugliest of nature’s designs can still be beautiful – even when they aren’t pretty.  NATURE reveals the vital functions behind vile forms when The Beauty of Ugly premieres Sunday, November 18, 2007 at 8 p.m. on WPBT/Channel 2 in Miami.  Academy Award-winning actor F. Murray Abraham is series narrator.

Watch some clips here (1) (2) (3)

“This is a fun program that’s got something to make everyone squirm,” says Fred Kaufman, executive producer of NATURE.  “But it’s also strong on science, explaining the purpose of these features that we often find ghastly.”
In the jungles of Borneo, NATURE catches up with the male proboscis monkey, whose preposterous schnoz and its distinctive honk are signs of dominance, used to intimidate rivals that might challenge him for his harem. 

Speaking of noses, the fleshy 22-tentacled sniffer of the star-nosed mole might win the blue ribbon for ugliness among tunnelers.  But it’s also the secret of its success – super-sensitive to touch, the tentacles allow the star-nosed to hunt 14 times faster than its competition.

Meanwhile, in Africa, the warthog wins the ugliest-mammal contest hands down.  But its large warts – actually protective pads of cartilage – serve a vital purpose, deflecting tusk strikes in battle.  Its rock-hard muzzle is impervious to even the sharpest of predators’ canines and, shaped like a shovel, helps unearth tasty roots and bulbs.

In Namibia, The Beauty of Ugly touches down at a vulture diner.  With their strong beaks and sagging folds of wrinkled pink skin, lappet-faced vultures are kings of the carcass pile – the pinker the skin, the higher up in the pecking order.

The naked mole rat is sure to give NATURE viewers the willies, with its hairless pale skin and long, narrow buck teeth.  Its nudity is an asset, though, letting it transfer heat quickly in huddles and ensuring no fleas or parasites will find a home.

The human intestine isn’t always so lucky when it comes to parasites, sometimes housing the revolting tapeworm.  They’ve been known to grow to 35 or 40 feet long and live up to 25 years, latching onto the gut with four large suckers on their head.  NATURE gets up close with a 10-footer, grown in a human volunteer.
The Beauty of Ugly also snuggles up to the dung beetle, winner of Oklahoma elementary schools’ ninth annual statewide Ugly Bug Contest; an Indian stork that ornithologists have dubbed a “prodigy of ugliness”; elephant seal bulls, whose hulking noses can measure two feet long; the ghost-face bat; the needle-toothed viperfish, and many others.

Comments

[Donald Lee]

Check out NATURE's ugliest animal photo competition. To learn more go to http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/flickr.html