AngularJS select creates option with value "? object:null ?" and doesn't use empty default option when bound to null

Question

Here's what the code looks like

<select ng-model="nullableInt">
  <option></option>
  <option value="0">First option</option>
  <option value="1">First option</option>
  <option value="2">First option</option>
</select>

When nullableInt is null the generated html is

<select ng-model="nullableInt">
  <option></option>
  <option value="? object:null ?"></option>
  <option value="0">First option</option>
  <option value="1">First option</option>
  <option value="2">First option</option>
</select>

Reproduced in the plunkr here: http://plnkr.co/edit/05pBEMJppmkrn3nFgYdk?p=info

It's worth mentioning that I'm trying to avoid using ng-options, it seems like a bit of overkill to create an endpoint for AngularJS to consume some data that really will not change very often, if ever.

Answer 1

Update 3/29/2017:

As Jorge Rodrigues dos Santos stated, this should be handled in a different way for newer versions of angular. Below is taken from the current documentation for angular 1.6.3

Optionally, a single hard-coded element, with the value set to an empty string, can be nested into the element. This element will then represent the null or "not selected" option. See example below for demonstration.

https://docs.angularjs.org/api/ng/directive/select

---

Angular is creating a new option to represent the null value. It didn't find one of the options you provided in the HTML.

To bind to null, set the value="null" on the first option

<option value="null"></option>

http://plnkr.co/edit/kzPVu4hiMcP6wA6crGYt?p=preview