Moneycontrol News September 22, 2024
A two-month-old pint-sized pygmy hippo went viral this week after her handlers posted videos of her on TikTok and Instagram from her home at a zoo in Chon Buri, Thailand.
Her cheeky expressions and playful frolicking racked up millions of views and have lured thousands of visitors wanting to witness her antics.
Moo Deng — whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork”, a popular snack — is now an unwitting poster child for the endangered pygmy hippo. He won the moniker in an online poll participated in by 20,000 people in August, The Guardian reported.
The fame has not gone to Moo Deng’s head, as she sticks close to her mother, sharing a meal of carrots, bananas, corn, and runner beans. Native to West Africa, the pygmy hippo is threatened by human activities, such as logging, mining and poaching, and there are only 2,500 left in the world.
Hundreds of visitors queued at the zoo for five minutes in the enclosure.
One group said they woke up at 5 am to make the two-hour drive from Bangkok to see the celebrity. A visitor said she hoped more Thais would come and “post about Moo Deng online so that more people will come to see her”.
Moo Deng’s caretaker and social media manager Atthapon Nundee, 31, said the rise of short-form videos has turbocharged the pygmy hippo’s fame and hopes it will be a boon for biodiversity preservation.
“With more images of pygmy hippos online, more people fell in love with them. They are poached in the wild, so with more people caring about them, it might prevent their poaching,” Moo Deng’s caretaker said.