Baby hippo Moo Deng becomes overnight internet sensation

Only a month after Thailand's adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable both domestically and internationally.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined Khao Kheow Open Zoo's newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.

Cars started lining up outside the zoo well before it opened Thursday. Visitors travelled from near and far for a chance to see the pudgy, expressive 2-month-old in person at the zoo about 100 kilometres southeast of Bangkok.

The pit where Moo Deng lives with her mom, Jona, was packed almost immediately, with people coming and cheering every time the pink-cheeked baby animal made skittish movements. “It was beyond expectation,” Atthapon told The Associated Press.

Moo Deng, The name was chosen by fans via a poll on social media, and it matches her other siblings Moo Toon and Moo Waan.

Already, Moo Deng has been made into memes. Artists are drawing cartoons based on her. Social media platform X even featured her in its official account’s post.

With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said they have begun patenting and trademarking “Moo Deng the hippo” to prevent the animal from being commercialised by anyone else. "After we do this, we will have more income to support activities that will make the animals’ lives better,” he said.

“The benefits we get will return to the zoo to improve the life of all animals here.” The zoo sits on 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeder programs for many endangered species like Moo Deng's.

Bouncing on social media

The pygmy hippopotamus that's native to West Africa is threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. There are only 2,000-3,000 of them left in the wild.

To help fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng shirts and pants that will be ready for sale at the end of the month, with more merchandise to come.

Narongwit believes a factor of Moo Deng's fame is her name, which compliments her energetic and chaotic personality captured in Atthapon's creative captions and video clips.

Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to “deng,” or bounce, and Atthapon has a lot of cute and funny moments or her giddy bouncing on social media.

Narongwit said the zoo has been receiving over 4,000 visitors during a weekday, up from around just 800 people, and more than 10,000 during a weekend, up from around 3,000 people.

But the fame has also brought some hostile visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up ready to play about two hours a day.

Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing things at the sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her up. The hippo pit now has a warning sign against throwing things at Moo Deng — posted prominently at the front in Thai, English and Chinese.

Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection law if people mistreat the animal. But clips emerged of people treating Moo Deng poorly, and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director said that since then, they haven’t seen anyone doing it again.

For fans who can't make the journey or are discouraged after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo set up cameras and plans to start a 24-hour live feed of the baby hippo in the coming week.