A picture of Moo Deng
By Rell Conley
One recent trend that is embedded in the hearts of the world is a baby hippo named Moo Deng that lives at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. After the hippo went viral on TikTok, there have been thousands of people who visited this zoo. The main reason the baby Pygmy Hippo went viral is because of her sassy personality. In the viral video, Moo Deng is seen biting the zookeeper and running around while her mom just eats and ignores her
The hippo has been getting so popular that there have been Saturday Night Live skits about the hippo. Even some psychology teachers at Benicia High School are using the hippo as a way to teach students about the hippocampus in the brain.
There seems to have been a theme of zoo animals going viral in the past few weeks. A very large baby penguin named Pesto also went viral, competing with Moo Deng for affection. This attention has been good for the zoos these animals live at, but it hasn’t been so good for the animals themselves. Because of all of these visitors, the animals have seemed to be under more stress. This has been a worry for the zoos.
Though these animals have brought joy to many people on social media and in person, it’s important for people to realize that these animals are still living beings and should not just be viewed as sources of entertainment.
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