Endangered pygmy hippo goes viral in Thai zoo September 17, 2024
- Ana Cunha-Busch
- Sep 16, 2024
- 2 min read
By AFP - Agence France Presse
Endangered pygmy hippo goes viral in Thai zoo
Sally JENSEN
With the morning sunlight reflecting off his glossy skin, Moo Deng, the pygmy hippo, slumps to the ground in his enclosure, seemingly unperturbed by his rapid rise to social media stardom.
The little two-month-old creature went viral this week after her keepers posted videos of her on TikTok and Instagram from her home at a zoo in Chon Buri, Thailand.
Her cheeky expressions and antics amassed millions of views and attracted thousands of visitors who wanted to witness her antics.
Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “jumping pig,” a popular snack, is now an unwitting poster boy for the endangered pygmy hippopotamus.
Fame has not gone to Moo Deng's head, as she stays close to her mother, sharing a meal of carrots, bananas, corn, and green beans.
Native to West Africa, the pygmy hippopotamus is threatened by human activities such as logging, mining, and poaching, and there are only 2,000 to 2,500 left in the world, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
Hundreds of visitors queued at the zoo for five minutes in the enclosure.
One group said they woke up at 5 am to make the two-hour journey from Bangkok to see the celebrity.
One visitor said she hoped more Thais would come and “post about Moo Deng on the Internet so that more people would come to see her.”
Moo Deng's caretaker and social media manager Atthapon Nundee, 31, said that the increase in short videos had turbocharged the pygmi hippo's fame and hopes that this will be a benefit for the preservation of biodiversity.
“With more and more images of pygmy hippos online, more people have fallen in love with them. They are victims of poaching in the wild, so with more people caring about them, it could prevent poaching,” he told AFP.
A 2022 study published by the Royal Society of Canada's Academy of Science shows that social media can play both positive and negative roles in wildlife conservation.
Public attention can help raise awareness of endangered wildlife, but it can increase the risk of species exploitation as more people try to come into contact with them.
The zoo's management says that the extra earnings from the skyrocketing visitor numbers - almost double over the weekend - will go towards improving the pygmy hippo enclosure and the zoo's public awareness campaigns.
The zoo also plans to launch a line of Moo Deng products next month.
Pygmy hippos are not native to Thailand, but “zoos must lead wildlife conservation outside of natural habitats,” zoo director Narongwit 'Wit' Chodchoy, 52, told AFP.
“So our mission is to perpetuate the species for as long as possible.”
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