She’s iconic. She’s glowing. She’s a queen. She’s slippery. She is Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork”.
Moo Deng is a small, 2-month-old pygmy hippo who lives in the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand and she has taken the world by storm from how goofy and cute she is. She has the baby zoomies right now and it’s causing her to have funny moments. Her fame started with a post from her zoo where she looks so cute in the first photo, but quickly devolves into a maniac harassing her family. From there, the zoo capitalized on this fame and started releasing more photos of her to captivate the public.
The bouncy pork was born on July 10th this year and lives with her two siblings Moo Wan (“sweet pork”), and Moo Tun (“stewed pork”), and their mom Jonah. The little pork family are part of the endangered pygmy hippo species with less than 2,500 pygmy hippos out in the wild. The Khao Kheow Open Zoo, where the family lives, is home to over 300 species, and a large number of which are species at risk of extinction, where they are trying to aid in breeding efforts to protect that population. This is why we’re able to see Moo Deng and her family.
This little fella has become the subject of many memes and reactions because she is so relatable. Especially for us students being frustrated with school and whatnot. Recently her fame increased even more when Bowen Yang portrayed her during SNL’s Weekend Update to portray the hippo as an analogue to the concerns Chappell Roan has said recently about fame and the election because people has been harassing Moo Deng, a nocturnal animal, to provoke her by throwing things at her like food and whatnot. The poor thing is probably overwhelmed by all of it, but at least the zoo has implemented more security measures.
In much more recent developments, the name Moo Deng recently just had an application for trademark placed by the zoo itself so that they can be the only ones making money off of her to support their zoo, which makes sense. People are annoyed that they can’t make money off of her, but the zoo is the one that physically supports her so they deserve the trademark.
In all reality, she is a hippo. However, it’s the clever marketing and her personality that is making her an icon. Hopefully this is a trend that lasts a while because I love seeing her and she is so fun to witness.