Nature: The Beauty of Ugly

Last night I watched The Beauty of Ugly on PBS while taking a study break. I was really looking forward to this program because although I am not a wildlife biologist, I am both interested and concerned with the future of the Earth's biodiversity. Programs like this allow the wildlife to come into people's living rooms and if done correctly may have an influence on the way the public views biodiversity. Also, I have heard and am of the belief that traditionally uglier and scarier animals of the world are at a higher risk for extinction than their cuter counterparts due to their being less public attachment to them. This results in fewer funds for conservation efforts. I applaud Nature for taking up the topic whether they feel the same way I do about conservation efforts or if they just needed another idea for a program.

There were some really interesting animals on the program, two of which I have had the pleasure of studying in college; the Northern Elephant Seal for a behavioral ecology lab and the hagfish for a vertebrate physiology class. Others that were discussed were the Star-nosed Mole, Naked Mole Rat, Vultures, Proboscis Monkeys and various deep sea fish. But much like other nature programs that show various animals, the segments always end sooner than expected. There was a superficial explanation that the male Proboscis Monkeys use their proboscii as a sexual selection agents by attracting mates and intimidating other males. The segment could have been longer in order to discuss how researchers came to the conclusion that this was what the proboscis was used for.

I would also have liked to learn more about the Star-nosed Mole's tentacles. Again there were some superficial facts but I felt like they could have included more information regarding how researchers determined the sensitivity of the tentacles. More in-depth evolutionary history of the species would have been both fascinating and worthwhile to the audience.

My criticism of the show is not to say that I didn't enjoy the program. I did enjoy it and actually learned a few new fact. The criticism stems from my unknowing belief that these programs are primarily watched by people who have an interest in biology and evolutionary history. People that watch these shows for entertainment want more information detailing experiments and factual explanations of the life histories of these animals. The other group of people that watch these shows are high school biology students. This is another demographic that should be given more information about the animals. Just like we fault our school system on simply teaching students the bare facts and not training them how to reason, shows like this, ones that tout themselves as educational programming and will be seen in classrooms, should provide the audience with more than simply bare facts. The way that the researchers came to their conclusions would have helped this show tremendously.