Moo Deng, the Toddler Hippopotamus, Is Still a Star Moo Deng, the Toddler Hippopotamus, Is Still a Star

The pygmy hippopotamus, now 6 months old, is Thailand’s biggest celebrity, and the crowds keep flocking. What explains her charm?

Moo Deng doesn’t bounce like she did a couple months ago.

But she still resembles a ripe avocado overstuffed with pâté. She retains a moist sheen. She snuffles. She yawns. She naps. She very occasionally sniffs her mother’s hindquarters, then recoils in a springy huff.

Mostly, Moo Deng ignores the hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who have schlepped to an out-of-the-way zoo for one reason: her. She is, somewhat unaccountably, Thailand’s most famous creature in forever, human or pachyderm. Yet if she’s not in the pool, her eyes and nostrils peeking above the water, Moo Deng spends a lot of time snoozing in a secluded corner of her enclosure, sprawled like an abandoned sausage.

It is a lot for a 6-month-old pygmy hippopotamus, this life of intense celebrity. The visitors are mostly respectful, but there are exceptions, both foreign and Thai. There have been incidents of tossed bananas and of splashed water. The daily annoyances are the shrieks and gasps and the chorus of “Moo Deng, Moo Deng” at every flick of her tail, every wiggle of her bristly jowls. People have fainted in her presence, although Thailand’s sticky heat could have been a factor, too.

Last week, Hunter Hackett, a digital nomad from California, joined the Moo Deng receiving line with his wife, Anisi Baigude, a children’s book illustrator.