Baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng is Thailand’s latest online sensation. But her keeper is worried about her fame
By Kocha Olarn and Chris Lau, CNN
Bangkok (CNN) — With her pinkish cheeks and natural charisma, two-month-old pygmy hippo Moo Deng is making millions of fans online and drawing bumper crowds to the Thai zoo where she lives.
The pint-sized new arrival at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo, east of the capital Bangkok, has been a social media hit since her keepers started uploading snippets of her life online.
When she’s not gobbling up grapes, she’s rolling on the floor or taking a dip under Thailand’s scorching sun.
She also loves a good chew of her handlers’ knees when they’re giving her a shower, according to social media clips that have drawn millions of views.
“It is her natural cuteness, her behavior that attract tourists,” Narongwit Chodchoy, director of the zoo, told CNN.
The zoo’s visitor numbers are up by at least 30%, Narongwit said, but Moo Deng’s fame has also brought unwanted disruption to her life, prompting the director to issue a warning.
“Some tourists behaved inappropriately. One person poured water [on her] while another threw a shell onto Moo Deng when she lay on the floor,” he said.
He urged tourists to be considerate and vowed to take legal action against anyone harming the mammalian child star.
While she continues to draw admirers in person, Moo Deng has found her biggest stardom online.
One particularly popular video posted on Facebook – showing her yawning and seemingly enjoying a pat on the chin from her keeper – has garnered 5.8 million views and counting.
“She is a star,” wrote one smitten fan, Aom Worawan, on Facebook.
Another, Napatsawan Balee, said that “a superstar was reincarnated as a hippo.”
“She became famous the instant she was born,” they wrote. “Haha, so cute!!”
Moo Deng’s name means “bouncy pig” in Thai, and is a common pork dish known for its chewiness. The name was decided by 20,000 Facebook users in an August poll, according to the zoo.
She was born on July 10 to mother Jona and father Tony who, before her, had Moo Toon and Moo Warn, both also named after items on a Thai food menu.
Native to West Africa, pygmy hippos are smaller cousins of the full-sized hippopotamus. Only about 2,000 pygmy hippos remain in the wild, mainly in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast, according to the UK-based Pygmy Hippo Foundation.
Narongwit recommended the best time to catch Moo Deng in action at the zoo is in the morning between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m., when keepers clean her enclosure. “This will be the time Moo Deng will be energetic as the keeper will splash the water around,” he said.
Another good time would be in the afternoon when the keeper feeds her mother, as Moo Deng follows her around. The baby hippo is very clingy to Jona, Narongwit said.
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