BANGKOK, March 18 \u2014 A Thai man broke into the zoo enclosure of Moo Deng, an endangered baby pygmy hippo and internet sensation, police said today, as the zoo filed a trespassing complaint.<\/p>\n
Moo Deng \u2014 whose name translates as \u201cbouncy pork\u201d \u2014 has gained global attention thanks to social media videos showing her adorable antics, drawing tens of thousands of visitors and boosting zoo ticket sales.<\/p>\n
Khao Kheow Open Zoo, about a two-hour drive from the capital Bangkok, said a Thai national had unlawfully entered the animal\u2019s pen yesterday.<\/p>\n
Footage of the close encounter released by local media showed a man wearing a tank top, shorts and sandals inside the enclosure and recording Moo Deng with a tablet.<\/p>\n
Zoo staff took about 10 minutes to remove the man from the pen, which also houses Moo Deng\u2019s mother, local media reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe individual entered a restricted animal area,\u201d the zoo said in a statement.<\/p>\n
It would \u201cpursue legal action without exception\u201d and added that Moo Deng was unharmed but \u201cslightly startled\u201d by the incident.<\/p>\n
Police told AFP the intruder, a man who visited the zoo with his grandnephew, had wanted a closer look at the animal.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have initiated a trespassing case,\u201d said local investigating officer Athiwat Siralertthakorn.<\/p>\n
No arrest has been made so far, he added.<\/p>\n
Under Thai law, trespassers face up to one year in jail, a fine of up to 20,000 baht (RM2,420) or both.<\/p>\n
The pygmy hippo calf, which marked its first birthday in July, has inspired merchandise and memes since first going viral online in 2024.<\/p>\n
Moo Deng has even featured in a beauty campaign by cosmetics giant Sephora, highlighting her glowing, peach-toned face. \u2014 AFP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BANGKOK, March 18 \u2014 A Thai man broke into the zoo enclosure of Moo Deng, an endangered baby…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":345354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[12624,168711,85,46,168710,168709,141,168713,386,168712],"class_list":{"0":"post-345353","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-bangkok","9":"tag-endangered-pygmy-hippo","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-khao-kheow-open-zoo","13":"tag-moo-deng","14":"tag-science","15":"tag-sephora-campaign","16":"tag-wildlife","17":"tag-zoo-trespassing"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/345354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}