Hippo birthday, Moo Deng!
THE country's pygmy hippo Moo Deng marked her first birthday, drawing crowds of diehard fans even as she left behind the cute animal infancy that earned her worldwide Internet fame.
Big crowds were expected at a four-day festival starting yesterday at Khao Kheow Open Zoo where Moo Deng – meaning 'Bouncy Pork' in Thai – frolicked to stardom and amassed five million social media followers.
The first day of the extravaganza fell on a Thai public holiday with an agenda including a lecture on 'Moo Deng's cheekiness', while a skincare beautician paid US$3,000 (RM12,745) to sponsor her 'birthday cake' made of an edible plant arrangement.
A small crowd of fans gathered outside her enclosure yesterday morning – fewer than the hordes she commanded at the height of her fame, but still animated with adoration.
Visitor Jennifer Tang took a week off her work in Malaysia to make the trip, saying she was 'a little bit obsessed' with the calf she described as a 'chaos rage potato'.
'She's really special to me, she makes me happy,' she said.
Tang insisted that Moo Deng is 'still really sassy and funny' despite approaching maturity.
'Take a look at the crowd today, she's still a legend,' she added.
Moo Deng has swollen from 5kg at birth to 93kg today.
Adoring fans: Visitors taking a photo with a Moo Deng mascot at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo. — AFP
She spent her birthday plodding in her enclosure and submerged in a pond – a stark contrast to her energetic yet clumsy antics as a pint-sized pachyderm.
'Moo Deng used to be very naughty and jumped around all the time. Now, she only eats and sleeps,' said Attaphol Nundee, one of her six handlers.
'Her popularity has slowed,' admitted the 32-year-old. 'But some old fans have returned, and there are new ones, too.'
Despite her waning fame, 'her eyes light up when people take photos of her', he said.
Moo Deng took only a few demure bites of her birthday cake made of watermelon, corn, dragon fruit and tomato before her mother Joana devoured it almost in its entirety.
'She was kind of hesitant at first with the cake, so I was like, 'Oh my gosh, come on diva!'' said Molly Swindall, a TikTok influencer from the United States.
Hundreds of spectators queued for their allotted five-minute audience with Moo Deng at the Chonburi province zoo, a two-hour drive from Bangkok.
One fan took home Moo Deng's bathtub, which was auctioned off for around US$3,000 (RM12,700) to raise funds for the zoo.
Moo Deng's blubbery rose-blushed face launched a thousand memes and a plethora of merchandise, including piggy banks, party shirts and popsicles – prompting her owners to trademark her likeness.
At one point, her popularity quadrupled ticket sales for the zoo where she resides in a sparse, stone, five square metre public enclosure, once livestreamed 24/7.
There were hopes that her stardom would spotlight the plight of the endangered pygmy hippo, native to West Africa with only around 2,500 left alive according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
But social media and search engine metrics suggest Moo Deng's popularity peaked around late September last year before dramatically declining.
'Moo Deng went viral very quickly when she was born,' said Joshua Paul Dale, an academic who teaches courses on the phenomenon of 'cuteness' at Japan's Chuo University.
'Maybe part of our appreciation of cuteness is knowing that it's something that doesn't last very long.'
Moo Deng is part of a pantheon of captive animals who have enjoyed flash-in-the-pan popularity online, including Australia's Pesto the penguin and China's Hua Hua the panda.
Pygmy hippos typically have a lifespan of between 30 and 50 years. — AFP
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