Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting tender moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined that the newborn pygmy hippo at Khao Kheow Open Zoo would become an internet megastar in a matter of weeks.
Cars began lining up outside the zoo long before it opened Thursday. Visitors traveled from near and far for a chance to see the chubby, expressive 2-month-old in person at the zoo about 100 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bangkok. The moat where Moo Deng lives with his mother, Jona, filled up almost immediately, with people cooing and cheering every time the pink-cheeked animal made nervous movements.
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“It was something that exceeded my expectations,” Atthapon told The Associated Press. “I wanted people to know about it. I wanted a lot of people to visit it, see it online or leave funny comments. I would have never thought of that.”
Moo Deng, which literally means “jumping pig” in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans through a social media poll and matches his other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also a regular hippo at the zoo called Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
“It’s such a small lump that I want to roll it up into a ball and swallow it whole,” said Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya during her visit to the zoo on Thursday.
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Moo Deng has already become a meme. Artists are drawing caricatures based on her. Social media platform X even featured her in a post on its official account.
With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have started patenting and trademarking “Moo Deng the hippo” to prevent the animal from being commercialized by anyone else. “After we do this, we will have more income to support activities that will improve the lives of animals,” he said.
“The profits we make will go back to the zoo to improve the lives of all the animals here.”
The zoo covers an area of 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeding programmes for many endangered species, including the pygmy hippopotamus, native to West Africa, which is threatened by poaching and habitat loss. Only 2,000 to 3,000 of these animals 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 by the end of the month, with more merchandise to follow.
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 music videos.
Moo Deng naturally likes to jump, and Atthapon has had plenty of cute and funny moments with her joyful jumps on social media. Even when she’s not jumping, the hippo is endlessly cute: she squirms when Atthapon tries to wash her, bites him when he tries to play with her, calmly closes her eyes as he rubs her pink cheeks or chubby tummy.
Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years caring for hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos are typically more playful and energetic, and become calmer as they grow older.
The zoo has seen a surge in visitor numbers since Moo Deng became famous, so much so that the zoo now has to limit public access to the baby’s enclosure to five-minute periods throughout the day on weekends.
Narongwit said the zoo has been receiving more than 4,000 visitors on a weekday, compared with around 800 people, and more than 10,000 on a weekend, compared with around 3,000 people.
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But fame has also brought some hostile visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up willing to play for about two hours a day. Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing things at the sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her up. The hippo pit now has a warning sign prohibiting throwing things at Moo Deng, posted prominently at the front in Thai, English and Chinese.
Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection act if people mistreated the animal. But videos emerged of people mistreating Moo Deng and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director said that since then, they have not seen anyone do it again.
For fans who can’t make the trip or feel put off after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, Khao Kheow Open Zoo has installed cameras and plans to begin a 24-hour livestream of the baby hippo in the coming week.
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