Thailand’s celebrity pygmy hippo Moo-Deng harassed by zoo visitors, gets more security

Moo-Deng, a two-month-old baby pygmy hippo in Thailand, is paying the price for her viral internet fame.

Updated on: Sep 16, 2024, 11:05:59 IST

By Sanya Jain

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A two-month-old baby pygmy hippo in Thailand is paying the price for her viral internet fame. Moo-Deng has millions of fans across the world, and she can’t step out of her enclosure at Khao Kheow Open Zoo without hundreds of cameras trained at her, but the celebrity baby hippo has been facing harassment from some fans who have taken to throwing objects at her in a bid to gain her attention.

Moo Deng has become the star attraction of Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand (Facebook/kkopenzoo)

Moo-Deng became an internet sensation and a popular meme after her photographs went viral on social media.

“The moment I saw Moo-Deng born, I set a goal to make her famous, but I never expected it would spread abroad. I thought she could be famous in Thailand but not internationally,” zookeeper Atthapon Nundee told The Guardian.

But Moo-Deng has indeed found fame at home and abroad. On social media platforms like X, Facebook and Instagram, videos of the baby pygmy hippo collect millions of views. Visitors at her zoo near the city of Pattaya have doubled since her birth in July, according to BBC.

Moo-Deng faces harassment

But not all the visitors are treating Moo-Deng right.

Videos that have surfaced online show some visitors at Khao Kheow Open Zoo throwing objects at Moo-Deng to get her attention. One tourist even poured water on the baby hippo to wake her up.

The zoo has threatened legal action against visitors who mistreat its celebrity resident.

"These behaviours are not only cruel but also dangerous," zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said in a statement posted online. "We must protect these animals and ensure that they have a safe and comfortable environment."

He said that the best time to visit Moo-Deng is when she is awake, possibly in a reference to one video which shows water being splashed to the hippo to wake her up.

The zoo has since deployed additional security features around Moo-Deng’s enclosure, installing CCTV cameras and threatening legal action against those who mistreat the baby hippo.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Sanya Jain
Sanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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