Thailand's adorable pygmy hippo Moo Deng has a face that launched a thousand memes

CHONBURI, Thailand — Only a month after Thailand's adorable baby hippo Moo Deng was unveiled on Facebook, her fame became unstoppable.

Fans unable to make the two-hour drive to Khao Kheow Open Zoo from the Thai capital Bangkok to see her in person can watch her video clips online, or simply scroll through social media to savor meme after meme.

Zookeeper Atthapon Nundee has posted cute moments of the animals in his care for about five years. He never imagined the zoo's newborn pygmy hippo would become an internet megastar within weeks.

Cars started lining up outside the zoo well before it opened Thursday. Visitors traveled from near and far for a chance to see the pudgy, expressive 2-month-old in person at the zoo about 60 miles southeast of Bangkok.

The pit where Moo Deng lives with her mom, Jona, was packed almost immediately, with people cooing and cheering every time the pink-cheeked baby animal made skittish movements.

"It was beyond expectation," Atthapon said. "I wanted people to know her. I wanted a lot of people to visit her, or watch her online, or leave fun comments. I never would've thought (of this)."

Moo Deng, which literally means "bouncy pork" in Thai, is a type of meatball. The name was chosen by fans via a poll on social media, and it matches her other siblings: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork).

There is also a common hippo at the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).

"She's such a little lump. I want to ball her up and swallow her whole!" Moo Deng fan Areeya Sripanya said while visiting the zoo Thursday.

Artists drew cartoon, cake and latte art based on her, and social media platform X even featured her in its official account's post.

Her image adorns memes by German soccer team FC Bayern, American basketball team Phoenix Suns, and American football team Washington Commanders, as well as the New York Mets.

Simple photo manipulation puts her in a variety of headgear or human-like situations.

Businesses, too, utilized her image. Sephora Thailand has a makeup tip — "wear your blush like a baby hippo" — highlighting her pink cheeks, while food delivery app Grab Thailand imagined with photos what kind of meal she could garnish.

With all that fame, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi said the zoo began copyrighting and trademarking "Moo Deng the hippo" to prevent the animal from being commercialized by anyone else.

"After we do this, we will have more income to support activities that will make the animals' lives better," he said.

The zoo sits on almost 2,000 acres of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals. It runs breeder programs for many endangered species like Moo Deng's.

The pygmy hippopotamus that's native to West Africa is threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. There are only 2,000 to 3,000 of them left in the wild.

To help fund the initiative, the zoo is making Moo Deng shirts and pants that will be ready for sale at the end of the month, with more merchandise to come.

Narongwit believes a factor of Moo Deng's fame is her name, which compliments her energetic and chaotic personality captured in Atthapon's creative captions and video clips.

Appropriately, Moo Deng likes to "deng," or bounce, and Atthapon has many moments of her giddy bouncing on social media.

Even when she's not bouncing, the hippo is endlessly cute — squirming as Atthapon tries to wash her, biting him while he tries to play with her, calmly closing her eyes as he rubs her pinkish cheeks or chubby belly.

Atthapon, who has worked at the zoo for eight years taking care of hippos, sloths, capybaras and binturongs, said baby hippos are usually more playful and energetic, and they become calmer as they get older.

The zoo saw a spike in visitors since Moo Deng's fame — so much that the zoo now has to limit public access to the baby's enclosure to 5-minute windows throughout the day on weekends.

Narongwit said the zoo received more than 4,000 visitors on a weekday, up from about just 800 people, and more than 10,000 during a weekend, up from about 3,000 people.

The fame also brought some aggressive visitors to Moo Deng, who only wakes up ready to play about two hours a day. Some videos showed visitors splashing water or throwing things at the sleeping Moo Deng to try to wake her.

The hippo pit now has a warning sign against throwing things at Moo Deng, posted prominently at the front in Thai, English and Chinese. Narongwit said the zoo would take action under the animal protection law if people mistreat the animal.

Clips emerged of people treating Moo Deng poorly, and the backlash was fierce. The zoo director said that since then, zoo staff members haven't seen anyone doing it again.

For fans who can't make the journey or are discouraged after seeing the crowds for Moo Deng, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo set up cameras and plan to start a 24-hour live feed of the baby hippo soon.