1000’s of excited followers flocked to a Thai zoo on Thursday to rejoice the primary birthday of Moo Deng, the cute child pygmy hippo that has change into a social media sensation.
The Khao Kheow Open Zoo was overrun with Moo Deng followers on the primary of 4 days of actions marking the hippo’s birthday. Youngsters below 12 years outdated can enter the zoo, a few two-hour drive from the capital Bangkok, without spending a dime all through the extravaganza.
Excited followers
Lots of Moo Deng’s followers flew miles to see her.
CHANAKARN LAOSARAKHAM/AFP by way of Getty Photos
Amongst them was Molly Swindall, who traveled from New York for the celebrations. She was seen handing a tray of meals to a zoo keeper for Moo Deng’s breakfast, which the newborn hippo and her mom Jona rapidly devoured.
“I simply beloved her a lot and determined, you realize what, I’ve three or 4 days off of labor,” Swindall mentioned. “I could make it work to fly to Thailand. I’ll solely be there for about 30 hours, however that is sufficient to go see Moo Deng. And that is precisely what I did.”
By Thursday afternoon, the variety of guests reached 12,000, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoy mentioned. Regardless of the noise of holiday makers calling out for her consideration, Moo Deng appeared peaceable as she took a dip in a pond in her enclosure.
Followers photographed the newborn hippo with their cameras or cell telephones and sang “Glad birthday” as her birthday cake, manufactured from a wide range of vegatables and fruits, was positioned close to the pond.
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“Moo Deng is my completely happy tablet, and she or he’s my vitality tablet, my curing tablet. She’s my vitamin!” mentioned Thea Chavez, who flew in from Houston, Texas.
One other fan, Jennifer Tang from Malaysia, leaned over the enclosure to take footage.
“She makes me completely happy. Every time I am burdened at work I pull up pictures of Moo Deng,” Tang mentioned. “So my complete workplace is aware of that I am right here … They let me take every week off.”
The zoo held on-line auctions to rejoice Moo Deng’s birthday, with pictures, footprints and a meals container on provide to boost funds for all of the animals below their care.
In addition they held an public sale for the honour of sponsoring her birthday cake, which went for 100,000 baht ($3,065.)
A star child hippo
Moo Deng soared to stardom shortly after she was born, largely due to her keeper, Atthapon Nundee, who shared cute footage and movies of the newborn hippo on social media. Atthapon retains Moo Deng’s followers up to date on enjoyable hippo moments — how she squirms as he tries to clean her, bites him as he tries to play, or calmly closes her eyes as he rubs her stomach.
The identify Moo Deng, which accurately means “bouncy pork” in Thai, was chosen by followers by way of a ballot on social media. It matches the names of her different siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (candy pork). There may be additionally one other hippo on the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
Lauren DeCicca/Getty Photos 
The zoo — which sits on 800 hectares (virtually 2,000 acres) of land and is dwelling to greater than 2,000 animals — noticed spikes of holiday makers since shortly after Moo Deng was born. However Narongwit mentioned the variety of guests has considerably dropped because the peak of Moo Deng’s fame. He mentioned the zoo has had about 2,000 guests throughout a weekday and round 5,000 throughout weekends over the previous few months — about half the numbers it noticed at its peak.
“Moo Deng is a consultant of all wild animals, and she or he helps everybody perceive the roles of zoos,” Narongwit instructed The Related Press. “She speaks for all almost extinct animals, and turns folks’s consideration to their conservation.”
What to find out about pygmy hippos
The zoo additionally runs breeding packages for a lot of endangered species, together with the pygmy hippopotamus. The species is native to West Africa, the place it’s threatened by poaching and lack of habitat. There are solely 2,000 to three,000 left within the wild. Pygmy hippos are actually discovered within the wild in solely 4 international locations: Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, based on the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance. The species is threatened by logging, farming and growing human improvement.
Carola Frentzen/image alliance by way of Getty Photos 
Pygmy hippos are certainly one of simply two hippo species, based on the African Wildlife Basis. The massive/widespread river hippo is the third-largest residing land mammal, after elephants and white rhinos. Pygmy hippos can develop to weigh greater than 600 kilos, whereas a river hippo might weigh as much as 10 occasions greater than a pygmy hippo, based on the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance.
In addition to the scale distinction, the pygmy hippo can be much less aquatic than the widespread hippo, based on the San Diego Zoo. Their toes are much less webbed, and so they even have only one pair of incisors, whereas the widespread hippo has two or three.
Pygmy hippos are largely nocturnal animals, based on consultants. Their common life span ranges from 30 to 50 years.
