Head to Thailand, where a new celebrity has been causing a lot of talk and smiles in recent weeks. And it’s a baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng. Born almost three months ago in the Chonburi zoo, about a hundred kilometers from the capital Bangkok, the little animal caused a sensation in the kingdom, where fans flocked every day to see him. But not only that: Moo Deng’s photos have also gone around the world. They have been viewed and shared millions of times on social networks, notably by influential personalities and even major brands.
How did Moo Deng become an internet sensation?
Small, cute and adorable. Born on July 10, Moo Deng, a baby female dwarf hippopotamus, an endangered species, already had some assets to attract Internet users. And there was no shortage of it: videos of the chubby mammal published by the zoo on TikTok went viral. Memes bearing his image, these images diverted in a humorous way on the internet, have flooded social networks by the millions. The fashion magazine Voguethe American actor Mark Ruffalo, the German football club Bayern Munich are among the influential accounts among others to have re-shared a photo of Moo Deng on the X or Instagram platforms. Fan pages have been created, clothes with the baby hippo are now on the market. And some brands have seized on the buzz: Sephora, for example, published a tutorial to explain how to apply one of its products to obtain the same complexion as Moo Deng, which makes everyone go gaga. Today, the animal has even become a cryptocurrency.
What characterizes the pygmy hippopotamus like Moo Deng?
The pygmy hippopotamus, its other name, looks exactly like the common hippopotamus. Except that his height at the withers is half as small, and he weighs less than a quarter of his cousin. Placed on the red list of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, the pygmy hippopotamus is endangered. In the wild, there are fewer than 2,500 left, mainly in West Africa, where its habitat is threatened by deforestation. In captivity, it is also a rare species. In the Chonburi zoo, where the queen of the Internet was born, Moo Deng has two half-sisters and a brother. But it is with its mother that the baby hippopotamus shares most of its time. In addition to her little rosy cheeks, her shiny skin and her bright eyes which make her endearing, it is her antics where she jumps in the enclosure and her little pouts when she washes herself which have made her famous. Hence its name given to it by its fans, Moo Deng, which means “bouncing pig” in Thai and which is also a very soft culinary specialty of the kingdom.
An unexpected viral success for the Chonburi Zoo
Every day, thousands of fans armed with their phones flock to catch a glimpse of Moo Deng for even a few moments. On the weekend, it’s five minutes tops, to avoid crowds. Because visits to Chonburi Zoo have quadrupled since the baby hippo became a sensation. In September, the establishment earned nearly 20 million bahts, or more than 500,000 euros. Two weeks ago, the zoo began broadcasting a 24-hour live stream of Moo Deng for his fans around the world. But a few days earlier, surveillance cameras had been installed for less glorious reasons. Some visitors threw water and shells at Moo Deng when she was sleeping to wake her up.
This dazzling popularity is double-edged. A 2022 study shows that social media can play both a positive and negative role in wildlife conservation, raising awareness of the threats of extinction they face, but sometimes increasing the risk of exploitation of these animals.
In any case, zoo officials said they wanted to patent the image of “Moo Deng the hippopotamus” to prevent the animal from being commercialized by other people. The income generated, they say, will be used to support animal conservation actions.
