Meet Little Moo Deng, the Playful Baby Hippo Who Has Stolen Hearts Everywhere – E! Online
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Say hello to your new best friend.
The internet has been aflutter with love for Moo Deng, a two-month-old female pygmy hippo from the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. Moo Deng—whose name roughly translates to “bouncy pig”—has been going viral for her adorable face, unruliness and overall incredible vibes.
“Being a human is miserable,” one Moo Deng fan joked on X, formerly Twitter. “I want to be a tiny baby hippo who is allowed to bite everyone.”
And Moo Deng’s celebrity isn’t just on the internet, as the zoo told the BBC that their number of visitors has doubled since her birthday in July. They also posted a message to Facebook Sept. 8, translated from Thai, “This morning, there are a lot of fan club #Little pig since the morning.”
It tracks then that they’re preparing to sell Moo Deng merchandise—including a button up shirt and pants—which they posted about to Facebook on the same day.
However, all the fame comes with a cost, as it appears many who visit the pygmy hippo in person have been rather mean, throwing things like shellfish at her and splashing water in an effort to get her to wake up. The problems caused the zoo to issue a warning.
“These behaviours are not only cruel,” zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said in a statement via the BBC, “but also dangerous.”
Facebook/Khao Kheow Open Zoo
He added, “We must protect these animals and ensure that they have a safe and comfortable environment.”
The zoo urged its visitors to make sure they come see Moo Deng when she is awake, recently posting to social media, “Little #Bouncing Pig will wake up bouncing in the morning from 8 AM to 9 AM ‘especially when she got showered’ then go back to sleep before waking up bouncing again in 2 PM. You can come to see me.”
The Khao Kheow Open Zoo is especially protective of Moo Deng, as pygmy hippos—also called dwarf hippos—are an endangered species, with the Pygmy Hippo Foundation estimating there are only about 2,000 remaining in the wild.
Facebook/Khao Kheow Open Zoo
And Moo Deng is not only helping raise awareness for her species, but she’s thrilling fans around the web while doing it.
“there is light and curiosity in Moo Deng’s eyes,” one fan wrote on X, with another adding, “Moo Deng was born enlightened.”
One user quipped, “moo deng is such a mood,” alongside a video of the hippo floating in the water, while another claimed that she is, “the most beautiful girl in the world.”
And as one X user put it sharing a video of people repeatedly hitting buttons on a slot machine, “me liking every moo deng post on the tl.”
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