‘Adorable’ Baby Hippo Moo Deng Is More Than a Viral Sensation. She Offers a Rare Glimpse of an Endangered Species

Over the past several weeks, images of a clumsy, rosy-cheeked baby hippo have flooded the internet. Plenty of photos and videos of the pygmy hippopotamus have gone viral, showing her biting her caretakers, mimicking her mother’s grass-chomping and displaying frenzied expressions. Her name is Moo Deng, she’s two months old—and she’s a viral sensation.

Moo Deng’s celebrity status is no accident. Atthapon Nundee, her zookeeper at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, has been posting adorable moments of the zoo’s animals for several years. But Moo Deng’s level of fame was not something he expected, and it has catapulted the zoo’s visitors on the average weekday from several hundred to thousands.

“It was beyond expectation,” Atthapon tells the Associated Press’ Jintamas Saksornchai. “I wanted people to know her. I wanted a lot of people to visit her, or watch her online, or leave fun comments.”

Moo Deng the most beautiful girl in the world pic.twitter.com/gTf9HTR0dk

— yammi (@sighyam) September 13, 2024

But Moo Deng, whose name translates to “bouncy pork,” is even more special than you might think. As a pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis), Moo Deng belongs to the rarer of the two extant species of hippo in the world. The more well-known one is the common hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius).

The differences between the two start with their size: Common hippos can weigh ten times more than pygmy hippos, with the largest males clocking in at nearly 10,000 pounds and females weighing roughly 3,000 pounds. Pygmy hippos, meanwhile, grow between 350 and 600 pounds and top out at no more than six feet in length, compared to the common hippo’s 10.8- to 16.5-foot-long body.

unbothered. moisturized. happy. in my lane. focused. flourishing#moodeng #หมเด้ง pic.twitter.com/oDoPMMu8Z5

— Moo Deng | Fan Page (@MooDengSOL) September 16, 2024

In the wild, pygmy hippos tend to live more solitary lives, while common hippos can congregate in herds of 40 to 200 individuals.

Their starkest difference, however, may lie in their numbers. There are about 115,000 to 130,000 common hippos in the world. In contrast, as few as an estimated 2,000 wild pygmy hippos remain.

Beyond the pygmy hippo’s smaller population, the nocturnal species is very rare to see, as its habitat is found in the interior forests of West Africa. Most of them dwell in intact forests in Liberia, but some individuals also live in Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

Few scientists are able to study common hippos, and there are “even fewer who study pygmy hippos,” says Rebecca Lewison, a conservation ecologist at San Diego State University, to Slate’s Luke Winkie. “They’re super cryptic and rare.”

Images of the species in the wild are even harder to come by—one such shot was captured last year, Lewison adds, and a camera trapping program led by the Zoological Society of London photographed the secretive species in Liberia for the first time in 2008.

As agrobusiness expands through West Africa, deforestation has put the pygmy hippo’s habitat in danger. Logging and mining have caused habitat fragmentation, breaking up the intact forests the species needs and bringing pygmy hippos into closer contact with humans. People also hunt the hippos for bushmeat.

Pygmy hippos have been bred successfully in zoos, but some conservationists say there should be more focus on preserving the species in the wild. “They are very endangered, but actually, with the proper enforcement and conservation plan in the wild—leave them alone, they can do really well,” Edwin Wiek, founder of Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand, tells the Guardian’s Rebecca Ratcliffe.

As pygmy hippos are so rare, it’s uncommon to witness the behavior of a pygmy hippo baby. So, Moo Deng’s fame has been due in part to her seemingly playful, and at times frenzied, nature. “From my experience with common hippos, nothing about Moo Deng strikes me as particularly unique,” Lewison tells Slate.

“She just seems like a feisty young hippo,” Lewison adds. “I’ve seen common hippos being born, and I’ve seen them in the wild. They’re playful and feisty—adorable, as everyone knows.”

Meanwhile, as crowds of fans flock to the zoo where Moo Deng lives to catch a glimpse of her cuteness, Atthapon, the zookeeper, says the zoo helps sustain work in conservation, per the Guardian. The zoo plans to sell Moo Deng shirts and pants to fund captive breeding initiatives, per the AP, and an upcoming 24/7 live stream of Moo Deng will make footage of the endangered hippo more accessible around the globe.

“I hope that the cuteness of Moo Deng will raise awareness for people to come and learn about [the species],” Atthapon tells the Guardian.

Alexa Robles-Gil | | READ MORE

Alexa Robles-Gil is a bilingual science journalist based in New York City. Her work has appeared in the Guardian, Undark, Inside Climate News and more.