Bangkok, Thailand:
An endangered child pygmy hippo that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has develop into a profitable supply of earnings for her house zoo, quadrupling its ticket gross sales, the establishment mentioned Thursday.
Moo Deng, whose identify in Thai means “bouncy pork”, has drawn tens of hundreds of tourists to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month.
The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merch, memes and even craft tutorials on make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at house.
A zoo spokesperson informed AFP that ticket gross sales from the beginning of September to Wednesday reached virtually 19.2 million baht ($590,000) — greater than 4 instances the identical interval final yr.
Fans from everywhere in the world have queued for hours exterior her enclosure, forcing keepers to restrict Moo Deng commentary time to 5 minutes every.
The zoo has arrange a round the clock livestream of the hippo’s enclosure to ease ready instances and for followers who can’t go to in particular person.
It can be hoping Moo Deng fever spurs additional merchandise gross sales, launching a pygmy hippo-themed T-shirt line final week. At 300 baht, or $9 a pop, it’s at the moment solely obtainable on the zoo itself.
“We have outsourced an organization to assist us produce Moo Deng merchandise, like T-shirts and trousers,” mentioned the zoo’s spokesperson, including any Moo Deng-generated earnings would go in direction of bettering services for all of the zoo’s animals, not simply its star moneymaker.
“Income will likely be used to take care of the zoo.”
The hype has prompted animal rights group PETA to submit a press release on its web site saying “there’s nothing cute a couple of child being born in captivity”.
Endangered pygmy hippos are native to West Africa, and there are solely an estimated 2,000-2,500 left on this planet, in accordance with the IUCN.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is revealed from a syndicated feed.)