It’s hard to open social media these days without a wet, chubby baby hippo popping up on the screen.
Moo Deng, a two-month old pygmy hippopotamus at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, has, whether she wanted to or not, become a social media icon. Moo Deng content has millions of views across various social media platforms — from videos of Moo Deng biting her zookeeper to blurred photos of her running around her habitat.
With a name meaning “bouncing pig,” Moo Deng was born on June 10 to mother Jona, 25, and father Tony, 24, with two other siblings, Pork Stew and Sweet Pork. Moo Deng is also the granddaughter of Thailand’s oldest hippo, Malee, who is 59 years old, according to USA TODAY.
Deemed the smaller cousin, pygmy hippos only grow to be about half the size of common hippos, weighing less than one-fourth of a full-sized common hippo, according to the Pygmy Hippo Foundation. They are native to West Africa, often calling Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast home. The average life expectancy of a pygmy is 27 years, compared to 35 years for a common hippo, per the San Diego Zoo.
Pygmy hippos were deemed an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2015. Per a survey conducted by the IUCN in 1993, only about 2,000-3,000 pygmy hippos remained worldwide.
Moo Deng’s recent celebrity has had a large impact on the Khao Kheow Open Zoo. The zoo’s director, Narungwit Chodchoy, told Reuters that on average, the zoo sees 800 visitors per day during the rainy season. However, since Moo Zeng’s newfound popularity, the zoo sees between 3,000-4,000 visitors per weekday.
If you’re looking to get a hippo fix, you’ll need to take a road trip. Springfield’s Dickerson Park Zoo has been without hippos since May 2020. At the time, sisters Zambezi and Kasai were “vacationing” at the Springfield zoo as they waited for their new habitat to be built at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in Colorado Springs, Colorado, according to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo website. The sisters still reside at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.
Today, the nearest hippopotamuses in Missouri are in St. Louis and Kansas City.
Saint Louis Zoo
Address: 1 Government Drive in St. Louis
Hours: Everyday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: Free
Three female Nile hippopotamuses call the Saint Louis Zoo home: Mashavu, 25, Tombi, 25, and Kiboko, 23.
Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium
Address: 6800 Zoo Drive in Kansas City
Hours: Monday through Friday from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission: $20-$22 per adult and $19-$20 per child/seniors (ages 3-11 and 65+)
Cairo, 8, and Liberty, 38, call the Kansas City Zoo & Aquarium home.
Greta Cross is the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. She has more than five years of journalism experience covering everything from Ozarks history to Springfield’s LGBTQIA+ community. Follow her on X and Instagram @gretalcross. Story idea? Email her at gcross@news-leader.com.
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Publish date : 2024-09-19 21:50:00
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