Curtain up for Moo Deng: Early in the morning, even before the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in the Thai province of Chonburi opens at 8 a.m., dozens of vehicles are jostling in front of the entrance. Everyone has come to catch a glimpse of a two-month-old chubby pygmy hippopotamus that has become an internet sensation with its big eyes and cute facial expressions.
The hippo girl not only inspires people in Asia and now also other parts of the world, but especially the zoo: Since Moo Deng was born on July 10, the number of visitors has doubled. Photos, videos and especially memes with the funniest facial expressions have been going viral for weeks.
Every movement of the dwarf hippo is accompanied by a murmur from the enraptured crowd in the zoo, cameras click, smartphones are held up in the air. Moo Deng hops happily on her short legs behind mother Jonah, who never leaves her side.
Objects thrown into the enclosure
When her keeper comes with the food, the fun really starts for the visitors: He sprays the hippo child with water and takes the cute snout in his hands, which Moo Deng responds to with funny grimaces.
Nevertheless, the feeling remains that the hype is more enjoyable for everyone than for the baby animal itself. It always seems to want to hide under its mother’s massive body. “Hippos belong in the wild, but Moo Deng will never live outside of a cage,” says Jason Baker, vice president of the animal rights organization Peta Asia. “Animals are not there for our entertainment.” Breeding them for public display leads to ongoing suffering.
But the Thais are crazy about the chubby hippo. “This is my first time in this zoo, and I only live ten minutes away from here,” says a woman of about 40. “But it was worth it for Moo Deng, she is so sweet!” Monks in saffron-colored robes are just as enchanted as school classes. “Moo Deng! Moo Deng!” some students shout excitedly. The little girl is an animal it-girl.
Not everyone has behaved in an exemplary manner in recent weeks: some guests have thrown objects into the enclosure to wake up the sleeping baby animal. This caused trouble. Security cameras have now been installed, while visitors are threatened with legal action for animal cruelty. This is clearly having an effect.
What does Moo Deng actually mean?
Moo Deng can be seen early in the morning, then she is allowed to rest before a second round of visitors in the afternoon. Her name means something like “jumping pig” and also refers to a well-known Thai street food dish: roasted pork belly on rice with a thick red sauce.
Around 20,000 Facebook users voted in August on what the zoo’s funny new addition should be called – and although the round, grey-pink, shiny Moo Deng is not a pig, the name seems tailor-made for her.
Reporters and camera teams have been arriving from all over the world for weeks. Even Time magazine has dedicated a tribute to Moo Deng and hailed her as an “icon” and “legend”. Moo Deng may not be a typical A-list celebrity, “but she is definitely treated like one,” writes the US news magazine. The animal child already has its own Wikipedia entry.
Shortened visiting times
The 2,000-hectare zoo is located about two hours’ drive southeast of Bangkok and 35 kilometers north of the tourist hotspot Pattaya. It gets particularly busy on weekends: Most recently, 12,000 Moo Deng fans overran the zoo on a single day, and the operators have now limited the visiting time per person on such days to five minutes in Moo Deng’s enclosure.
It is the second time in a matter of weeks that offspring of the rare pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), which only lives in the wild in West Africa, has sparked euphoria: Shortly before Moo Deng, Toni, born in Berlin Zoo at the beginning of June – named after the Berlin footballer Antonio “Toni” Rüdiger – became a star. Also unforgettable in Berlin to this day is the polar bear cub Knut, who was born at the end of 2006 and died suddenly in 2011 and quickly became an international media darling.
The German Embassy in Bangkok wondered in a Facebook post whether Toni and Moo Deng could become friends at some point and added: “Although it is unlikely that they will meet due to their captivity in zoos, they may have common relatives in the Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia or Sierra Leone – the last countries where the endangered pygmy hippopotamus still lives in the wild.” But the two have one small thing in common: Moo Deng’s dad is called Tony.
Even FC Bayern Munich took the opportunity to post Moo Deng’s expressive facial expressions on X after their 9-2 win against Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League. “That’s how we looked yesterday, Moo Deng!” the team wrote with laughing smileys.
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Livestream and souvenirs
The magical hippo girl has also long been a celebrity in Japan, South Korea and China. In the People’s Republic she is called Tan Tiao Zhu – Chinese for hopping pig. The hashtag has already been clicked around 2.3 million times on the social media platform Xiaohongshu.
To meet the demand of fans from all over the world, a 24-hour live stream will soon be set up in the enclosure. Colorful Moo Deng souvenirs are also being prepared, including T-shirts and stuffed animals. The proceeds will go towards urgently needed work in the zoo with its 3,000 animals.
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