Cute or just plain ugly?

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Cute or just plain ugly?

Naked mole rats aren't real pretty. But beauty may be in the eye of the beholder

To the animal keepers at Zoo Atlanta, these hairless specimens of Heterocephalus glaber are special, wrinkles and all. They are mole rats, scheduled to debut April 1. The news got us wondering? What else has a face or body only a mother could love?

A possum is about as Southern as ugly critters come. And check out those teeth!

The Madagascar hissing cockroach. All hissing cockroaches, including females and babies, have the ability to hiss. Males can discriminate among the hisses of familiar males and strangers.

The turkey vulture isn't much to look at, but it is a graceful flyer. The large broad-winged bird spends most of its time soaring, spying some delicious road kill.

Shrek was big in heart, a little scary in the mirror.

Elwood, a 2-year-old Chinese Crested and Chihuahua mix, was crowned the world's ugliest dog last June, a distinction that delighted the New Jersey mutt's owners.

Not very attractive at first, pandas grow into beautiful mammals with an insatiable appetite for bamboo. Here is Zoo Atlanta's Mei Lan shortly after birth in 2006.

Jim Carrey played the Grinch, a Dr. Seuss character who steals Christmas.

Warthogs' large, flat heads are covered with "warts" -- protective bumps really. They have four sharp tusks, are mostly bald with sparse hair and a thicker mane on their backs. When startled or threatened, warthogs can run at speeds of up to 30 miles an hour -- so be careful how close you are if you dare call them ugly.

Marine iguanas have wide-set eyes, smashed-in faces, spiky dorsal scales, and knotty, salt-encrusted heads, and sneeze frequently to expel salt from glands near their nose. The salt often lands on their heads, giving them a distinctive white wig. How's that for hygiene?

Sid the Sloth of "Ice Age: The Meltdown."

Need we say more?

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To the animal keepers at Zoo Atlanta, these hairless specimens of Heterocephalus glaber are special, wrinkles and all. They are mole rats, scheduled to debut April 1. The news got us wondering? What else has a face or body only a mother could love?

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