Moo Damn
A tiny and adorable pygmy hippo called Moo Deng has been melting hearts across the world.
The miniature celebrity was born at the Khaow Kheow Open Zoo east of Bangkok, Thailand, and has been steadily going viral for her cute looks and ferocious chomps. Her name means “bouncy pig” in Thai, a reference to a popular pork dish in the country, and was chosen by tens of thousands of Facebook users in a poll last month.
Videos of Moo Deng have been getting millions of views on X-formerly-Twitter, Facebook, and TikTok. In fact, she’s gotten so much attention that caretakers had to restrict her visit hours, as NBC News reports.
“It is her natural cuteness, her behavior that attract tourists,” the zoo’s director Narongwit Chodchoy told CNN, adding that visitor numbers are up by at least 30 percent overall.
Stop Everything
According to the Pygmy Hippo Foundation, there are only 2,000 estimated pygmy hippos remaining in the wild, scattered across West Africa. Most of them are believed to be in Liberia.
Unlike their far more massive cousin the river hippopotamus, pygmy hippos only grow to up to roughly 31 inches in height. They’re also known to be shy, nocturnal herbivores. There’s plenty about the animals that remains unknown, including seemingly basic information like breeding seasons or their exact diet, according to the San Diego Zoo.
Unfortunately, they’re officially listed as endangered due to their natural habitat being cut or burned down. The rivers they frequent are being polluted by human activity. In some areas, they’re even being hunted by bushmeat hunters.
The good news: they breed well in captivity, according to the San Diego Zoo — and Moo Deng’s meteoric rise to fame could shed more light on ongoing conservation efforts.
If anything, given the drab and depressing news cycle these days, we could all use a little more Moo Deng in our daily lives right now.
“As terrible as the world is right now, I love that we can all come together and collectively love these hippolings,” one user tweeted.
More on wildlife conservation: Scientists Implant Radioactive Material Into Horn of Living Rhinoceros to Poison Anyone Who Consumes It