Moo Deng fans invited to visit Taronga Zoo’s pygmy hippo calf Lololi
Sydney’s Taronga Zoo has good news for anyone who has recently fallen in love with Thailand’s adorable pygmy hippo calf Moo Deng.
Taronga Zoo is home to Australia’s only baby pygmy hippo, nine-month-old Lololi.
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Although Lololi has not achieved the viral fame of Moo Deng, Taronga Zoo ungulate keeper Jacob Leto said she was equally as cute and just as full of personality.
“I really love Moo Deng, she’s blown up my feed as well as everyone else’s, so it’s really great to see people are starting to catch on to how charismatic these species are,” Mr Leto told ABC Radio Sydney’s Craig Reucassel.
Videos of the tiny and slightly slimy Moo Deng have been viewed millions of times on TikTok and Instagram.
Moo Deng’s popularity has attracted up to 20,000 visitors on weekends to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, where she was born two months ago.
Taronga Zoo is hoping the interest generated in the endangered species will lead to more families visiting this school holidays.
“You don’t have to go travel to Thailand to see a pygmy hippo,” Mr Leto said.
“You can come down to Taronga and learn about Lololi and pygmy hippos and what people can do to preserve this species in the wild.”
Lololi was born in January as part of international conservation efforts to create an insurance population of the species.
Found predominantly in the lowland forests and wetlands of West Africa, there are fewer than 2,500 pygmy hippos estimated to be left in the wild.
Lololi has been steadily gaining weight and is now a healthy 60 kilograms.
She enjoys plodding along behind mother Kambiri, nuzzling and suckling, and swimming in the deep pond in her enclosure.
While Moo Deng’s name roughly translates to “bouncy pork”, Lololi is a West African term meaning “there will always be love”.