The Pygmy Hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) is a down-sized version of the regular hippopotamus, that lives mostly in West Africa, with populations in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Ivory Coast. Smaller and rather less aggressive than their larger cousins, the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius), they aren’t terribly common critters, with good numbers of the existing populations currently living in zoos.
One of those zoos is Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, which has a brand-new baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng (“bouncy pork”) and she is stinkin’ adorable.
Only a month after Thailand’s adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable.
Fans unable to make the two-hour drive to Khao Kheow Open Zoo from the Thai capital Bangkok to see her in person can watch her video clips online, or simply scroll through social media to savor meme after meme.
Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has been posting cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined the zoo’s newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.
The AP story (linked above) continued:
Moo Deng, which literally means “bouncy pork” in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans via a poll on social media, and it matches her other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There is also a common hippo at the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
This baby’s fame is anything but hippothetical. Moo Deng, despite being named for a Thai dish, has quickly become an internet sensation, and deservedly so. She certainly knows how to hippose for a photo:
Thailand’s adorable pygmy hippo Moo Deng has the kind of face that launches a thousand memeshttps://t.co/Q7wxzul3Ms pic.twitter.com/Xg3kPBNI6B
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) September 20, 2024
All this time, I was unaffected by the Instagram stories of my friends and acquaintances visiting Thailand, but not anymore. I just can’t get enough of the cute pygmy hippo, Moo Deng 😍😭😍😭#Moodeng #PygmyHippo pic.twitter.com/huyWOywutO
— ⚯͛ (@coffeeovertea_) September 17, 2024
Of course, the pygmy hippos are perfectly comfortable in Thailand’s balmy climate. Were they in a more northern clime, they would have to be kept indoors all the time, lest they suffer from hippothermia.
The biologist in me would like to point out that we humans find Moo Deng to be so adorable because of the neotenous traits she exhibits; a short, rounded snout, a chubby body, and short legs. It’s the same thing that makes us find puppies, kittens, and human babies so cute. It’s programmed into us to make us want to protect young humans and young animals – but the baby pygmy hippo sure seems to take it to a new level, and it’s fun to surf through the comments on X about this new baby and see how many people are ready to pack up, fly to Thailand, and apply for a job as a Moo Deng-keeper.
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Like their larger cousins, pygmy hippos can be dangerous, although they are nocturnal and highly reclusive in the wild; in fact, their existence as a species distinct from the common hippo wasn’t known to people outside their small home range until the 19th century. Unlike their larger cousins, they don’t kill many people – something the common hippo is notorious for. The pygmy hippo may not be the complete hipposite of this, but they are close enough.
In closing, I’ll repeat the riddle I posted on a previous story on a similar critter: Do you know the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One’s really big. The other’s a little lighter.
I’ll show myself out.
