Thousands Celebrate Moo Deng's First Birthday

Thousands of excited fans flocked to a Thai zoo on Thursday to celebrate the first birthday of Moo Deng, the adorable baby pygmy hippo that has become a social media sensation. The Khao Kheow Open Zoo was overrun with Moo Deng fans on the first of four days of activities marking the hippo's birthday. Children under 12 years old can enter the zoo, about a two-hour drive from the capital Bangkok, for free throughout the extravaganza.

• Many of Moo Deng's fans flew a long way to see her, the AP reports. Among them was Molly Swindall, who traveled from New York for the celebrations. She was seen handing a tray of food to a zookeeper for Moo Deng's breakfast, which the baby hippo and her mother, Jona, quickly devoured. "I just loved her so much and decided, you know what, I have three or four days off of work," said Swindall, "I can make it work to fly to Thailand. I will only be there for about 30 hours, but that's enough to go see Moo Deng. And that's exactly what I did."
  

• By Thursday afternoon, the number of visitors reached 12,000, zoo director Narongwit Chodchoy said. Despite the noise of visitors calling out for her attention, Moo Deng appeared peaceful as she took a dip in a pond in her enclosure. Fans photographed the baby hippo with their cameras or cellphones and sang "Happy Birthday" as her birthday cake, made of a variety of fruits and vegetables, was placed near the pond.
• "She makes me happy. Whenever I'm stressed at work I pull up photos of Moo Deng," said one fan, Jennifer Tang from Malaysia. "So my whole office knows that I'm here. ... They let me take a week off."
• The zoo held online auctions to celebrate Moo Deng's birthday, with photos, footprints, and a food container on offer to raise funds for all the animals under their care. There also was an auction for the honor of sponsoring her birthday cake, which went for 100,000 baht ($3,065).
• Moo Deng soared to stardom shortly after she was born, largely thanks to her keeper Atthapon Nundee, who shared pictures and videos of the baby hippo on social media. Atthapon keeps Moo Deng's fans updated on fun hippo moments—how she squirms as he tries to wash her, bites him as he tries to play, or calmly closes her eyes as he rubs her belly.