BANGKOK: A man has been arrested after trespassing into an enclosure in a Thailand zoo which houses viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday (March 17), the Khao Kheow Open Zoo said images on social media showed an intruder had entered Moo Deng’s enclosure that day at around 5pm.
The man was apprehended by security personnel and handed over to the police, it added.
The zoo assured the public that Moo Deng and other hippos were unharmed, though they may have experienced “slight shock” from the close encounter with an outsider.
The zoo’s veterinary team will closely monitor the animals’ behaviour.
A live stream of the enclosure on YouTube shows a man jumping into the enclosure at 5.17pm and approaching the hippos. He appears to be filming them with a tablet in his hand.
At one point, he reaches out to one of the hippos but retracts his hand before he can touch it.
After slightly more than a minute, he climbs back over the fence, helped by another person whose face is not caught on camera.
Moo Deng, which means “bouncy pork” in Thai, shot to internet virality just days after she was born on July 10, 2024. The zoo is located in Thailand’s southern Chonburi province, more than two hours from Bangkok by car.
Google search trends suggest that Moo Deng’s popularity peaked around September 2024, when US variety show Saturday Night Live featured her in a sketch that has been viewed over two million times on YouTube. - The Nation/ANN
