Barely a month after the adorable Thai hippopotamus baby Moo Deng was featured on Facebook, his fame has become unstoppable.
Fans who can’t make the two-hour trip to Khao Kheow Zoo from the Thai capital, Bangkok, to see her in person can watch her videos online, or simply scroll through social media to savor meme after meme.
Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. I never imagined that the zoo’s newborn pygmy hippopotamus would become an international megastar in a matter of weeks.
Cars were lining up outside the zoo long before it opened Thursday. Visitors traveled from near and far for the chance to see the plump, expressive 2-month-old baby in person at the zoo, about 60 miles southeast of Bangkok. The well where Moo Deng lives with his mother, Jona, filled up almost immediately, with people sighing and cheering every time the rosy-cheeked baby hippopotamus made skittish movements.
It was beyond expectations, Atthapon told The Associated Press. She wanted people to know her. I wanted a lot of people to visit it, or watch it online, or leave funny comments. I would have never imagined this.
Moo Deng, which literally means bouncing pig in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans through a poll on social media, and matches its other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also a common hippopotamus in the zoo called Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
It’s such a small lump. I want to roll it into a ball and swallow it whole! said Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya while visiting the zoo on Thursday.
Artists have drawn cartoons, cakes, and latte art based on it, and social media platform X even featured it in its official account post.
His image adorns the memes of the German football team FC Bayern, the American basketball team Phoenix Suns and the American football team Washington Commanders, as well as the New York Mets. Edited photos present her with headdresses or human-like situations.
Companies have also used his image. Sephora Thailand has a makeup tip: Wear your blush like a baby hippopotamus, highlighting its rosy cheeks, while food delivery app Grab Thailand imagines with photos what kind of food it could decorate.
Moo Deng the hippopotamus trademark registered
With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have begun copyrighting and trademarking Moo Deng the hippopotamus to prevent the animal from being commercialized by anyone else. After doing this, we will have more income to support activities that will improve the lives of animals, he said.
The zoo sits on 800 hectares of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals. He runs breeding programs for many endangered species such as Moo Deng. The pygmy hippopotamus, native to West Africa, is threatened by poaching and habitat loss. Only 2,000 to 3,000 of them remain in the wild.
To help fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng t-shirts and pants that will be ready for sale at the end of the month, with more merchandise to come.
Narongwit believes that one factor in Moo Deng’s fame is his name, which complements his energetic and chaotic personality captured in Atthapon’s creative subtitles and video clips.
Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to deng or bounce, and Atthapon has many moments of his dizzying bounce on social media. Even when she’s not jumping, the hippopotamus is infinitely cute: she squirms while Atthapon tries to wash her, she bites him while he tries to play with her, she calmly closes her eyes while she rubs her rosy cheeks or her plump belly.
Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years caring for hippopotamuses, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos tend to be more playful and energetic, and become calmer as they grow older.
Receives up to 10,000 visits on weekends
The zoo has seen an increase in visitors since Moo Deng’s fame, so much so that it now has to limit public access to the baby’s enclosure to 5-minute windows all day on weekends.
Narongwit said the zoo has been receiving more than 4,000 visitors on weekdays and more than 10,000 on weekends, up from 800 on weekdays and 3,000 on weekends.
But fame has also attracted some aggressive visitors to Moo Deng, who wakes up ready to play about two hours a day. Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing objects at a sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her up. The hippopotamus pit now has a sign warning against throwing things at Moo Deng, posted prominently out front in Thai, English and Chinese.
Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection law if people mistreat the animal. When videos emerged of people treating Moo Deng badly, the reaction was fierce. The zoo director said they haven’t seen anyone do it again since.
For fans who can’t make the trip or are discouraged after seeing the crowds Moo Deng draws, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo has installed cameras and plans to begin a 24-hour livestream of the baby hippopotamus next week.
