Two-month-old pygmy hippo Moo Deng is breaking the internet with her slippery temper tantrums. Her virality is bringing swathes of visitors to her enclosure in a Thai zoo and new attention to the plight of her species.
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00:00Plump, slippery, and all kinds of sassy, meet Mudeng, the two-month-old pygmy hippo breaking
00:07the internet.
00:09From inside her enclosure at a zoo in Thailand, Mudeng, whose name roughly translates to bouncy
00:14pig, has become the internet's latest darling, garnering over two and a half million followers
00:20on TikTok and a diehard fanbase the world over.
00:25With some netizens describing her as their spirit animal, and the most beautiful girl
00:30in the world, Mudeng's chubby aesthetic and sudden tantrums are bringing swathes of visitors
00:36to the Khao Kio Open Zoo.
00:38Mudeng's sudden fame has more than doubled the number of daily visitors to the zoo, bringing
00:59a new level of attention to the humble institution.
01:20Though after reports of some visitors throwing things at Mudeng, the zoo has warned they'll
01:25take legal action against anybody caught mistreating their animals.
01:30Pygmy hippos are an endangered species.
01:32There are estimated to be fewer than 3,000 left in the wild, their numbers threatened
01:37by poaching and habitat loss.
01:40But Mudeng's keepers are hopeful her rise to stardom can raise the profile of the species
01:45as a whole.
01:58And based on the reactions of some visitors, it seems to be working.
02:17Mudeng's outbursts and cuteness have made her perfect meme material, and the unwitting
02:22ambassador for her entire species.
02:25With luck, she'll be cute enough to bring real help for her kind.
02:29Justin Wu and Rhys Ayres for Taiwan Plus.