CHONBURI, Thailand –
Solely a month after Thailand’s cute child hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Fb, her fame grew to become unstoppable each domestically and internationally.
Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his take care of about 5 years. He by no means imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo’s new child pygmy hippo would develop into an web megastar inside weeks.
Automobiles began lining up exterior the zoo effectively earlier than it opened Thursday. Guests traveled from close to and much for an opportunity to see the pudgy, expressive 2-month-old in individual on the zoo about 100 kilometres (60 miles) southeast of Bangkok. The pit the place Moo Deng lives along with her mother, Jona, was packed nearly instantly, with folks cooing and cheering each time the pink-cheeked child animal made skittish actions.
“It was past expectation,” Atthapon informed The Related Press. “I needed folks to know her. I needed lots of people to go to her, or watch her on-line, or depart enjoyable feedback. I by no means would’ve thought (of this).”
Moo Deng, which accurately means “bouncy pork” in Thai, is a kind of meatball. The identify was chosen by followers by way of a ballot on social media, and it matches her different siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (candy pork). There’s additionally a typical hippo on the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
“She’s such slightly lump. I wish to ball her up and swallow her complete!” mentioned Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya whereas visiting the zoo Thursday.
Already, Moo Deng has been made into memes. Artists are drawing cartoons based mostly on her. Social media platform X even featured her in its official account’s publish.
With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi mentioned they’ve begun patenting and trademarking “Moo Deng the hippo” to stop the animal from being commercialized by anybody else. “After we do that, we may have extra revenue to help actions that may make the animals’ lives higher,” he mentioned.
Two-month-old child hippo Moo Deng performs with a zookeeper within the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Picture/Sakchai Lalit)
“The advantages we get will return to the zoo to enhance the lifetime of all animals right here.”
The zoo sits on 800 hectares (nearly 2,000 acres) of land and is dwelling to greater than 2,000 animals. It runs breeder applications for a lot of endangered species like Moo Deng’s. The pygmy hippopotamus that is native to West Africa is threatened by poaching and lack of habitat. There are solely 2,000-3,000 of them left within the wild.
To assist fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng shirts and pants that will likely be prepared on the market on the finish of the month, with extra merchandise to come back.
Narongwit believes an element of Moo Deng’s fame is her identify, which compliments her energetic and chaotic persona captured in Atthapon’s artistic captions and video clips.
Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to “deng,” or bounce, and Atthapon acquired a number of cute and humorous moments or her giddy bouncing on social media. Even when she’s not bouncing, the hippo is endlessly cute — squirming as Atthapon tries to scrub her, biting him whereas he was making an attempt to play along with her, calmly closing her eyes as he rubs her pinkish cheeks or her chubby stomach.
Atthapon, who has labored on the zoo for eight years caring for hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, mentioned child hippos are normally extra playful and energetic, and so they develop into calmer as they grow old.
The zoo noticed a spike in guests since Moo Deng’s fame — a lot that the zoo now has to restrict public entry to the child’s enclosure to 5-minute home windows all through the day throughout weekends.
Narongwit mentioned the zoo has been receiving over 4,000 guests throughout a weekday, up from round simply 800 folks, and greater than 10,000 throughout a weekend, up from round 3,000 folks.
However the fame has additionally introduced some hostile guests to Moo Deng, who solely wakes up able to play about two hours a day. Some movies confirmed guests splashing water or throwing issues on the sleeping Moo Deng to attempt to wake her up. The hippo pit now has a warning signal in opposition to throwing issues at Moo Deng — posted prominently on the entrance in Thai, English and Chinese language.
Narongwit mentioned the zoo would take motion underneath the animal safety legislation if folks mistreat the animal. However clips emerged of individuals treating Moo Deng poorly, and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director mentioned that since then, they haven’t seen anybody doing it once more.
For followers who cannot make the journey or are discouraged after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo arrange cameras and plan to begin a 24-hour dwell feed of the child hippo within the coming week.
Two-month-old child hippo Moo Deng walks on the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Picture/Sakchai Lalit)
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