Thailand's cute pygmy hippo Moo Deng publishes a thousand memes

CHONBURI, Thailand (AP) — Just one month after Thailand's When cute baby hippo Moo Deng was featured on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable.

Fans who can't make the two-hour drive from the Thai capital Bangkok to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo to see them in person can watch their video clips online or simply scroll through social media to enjoy one meme after another.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals he cares for about five years, but he never imagined that the zoo's newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar in just a few weeks.

Long before the opening on Thursday, cars were queuing outside the zoo. Visitors came from near and far to see the chubby, expressive 2-month-old boy in person at the zoo about 100 kilometers southeast of Bangkok. The pit in which Moo Deng lives with her mother Jonawas almost immediately full, and people cooed and cheered every time the pink-cheeked baby animal made startled movements.

“It exceeded all expectations,” Atthapon told the Associated Press. “I wanted people to know about her. I wanted lots of people to visit her, watch her online or leave funny comments. I never imagined this.”

Moo Deng, which literally means “springy pork” in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans via a social media poll and fits in with her other siblings: Moo Toon (braised pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). The zoo also has a common hippo named Kha Moo (braised pork leg).

“She is such a little lump. I would like to crumple her into a ball and swallow her whole!” said Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya during a visit to the zoo on Thursday.

Artists have drawn cartoons, cakes and latte art based on them, and the social media platform X even introduced them in the post of his official account.

Her picture adorns memes of the German national football team FC Bayern, American basketball team Phoenix Suns, and American football team Washington Commandersas well as the New York Mets. Through simple photo manipulation she is put into different headgear or human-like situations.

Companies have also used her image. Sephora Thailand has a makeup tip – “Wear blush like a baby hippo” – that accentuates her pink cheeks, while food delivery app Grab Thailand used photos to imagine what kind of meal she might garnish.

Given all this fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have begun copyrighting and trademarking the hippo Moo Deng to prevent the animal from being commercialized by others. “After that, we will have more revenue to support activities that improve the animals' lives,” he said.

The zoo covers 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeding programs for many endangered species, such as Moo Deng's. The pygmy hippopotamus, native to West Africa, is threatened by poaching and habitat loss. There are only 2,000 to 3,000 left in the wild.

To help fund the initiative, the zoo is producing Moo Deng shirts and pants that will be available for sale at the end of the month, with more items to follow.

Narongwit believes that one factor of Moo Deng's fame is her name, which complements her energetic and chaotic personality, which is reflected in Atthapon's creative captions and video clips.

Appropriately, Moo Deng loves to “deng,” or hop, and Atthapon has many moments of bouncing around on social media. Even when she's not hopping, the hippo is endlessly cute – squirming when Atthapon tries to wash her, biting him when he tries to play with her, and quietly closing her eyes when he rubs her pink cheeks or chubby belly.

Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years and cares for hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos are usually more playful and energetic and become calmer as they get older.

Since Moo Deng's rise to fame, the zoo has seen an influx of visitors – so much so that the zoo now has to limit public access to the babies' enclosure on weekends to 5-minute slots throughout the day.

Narongwit said the zoo received over 4,000 visitors on a weekday, compared to about 800 visitors previously, and over 10,000 on a weekend, compared to about 3,000 visitors previously.

But fame has also brought some aggressive visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up for about two hours a day and is ready to play. Some videos show visitors trying to splash water on the sleeping Moo Deng or throw things at her to wake her up. A warning sign warning against throwing things at Moo Deng now hangs at the hippo pool, prominently displayed on the front in Thai, English and Chinese.

Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the Animal Welfare Act if people mistreat the animal. But video footage of people mistreating Moo Deng surfaced and the reaction was fierce. The zoo director said they had not seen anyone do anything like that since then.

For fans who cannot make the journey or are discouraged by the sight of the large crowds at Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo has set up cameras and plans to start a 24-hour live broadcast of the baby hippo next week.