A person has been arrested after he was apprehended attempting to climb into the enclosure of viral pygmy hippo Moo Deng, zoo officials say.
The Thai man allegedly entered the enclosure on Tuesday evening while a keeper was away and no other visitors were around, Khao Kheow Open Zoo director Narongwit Chodchoy told The Associated Press.
Footage widely shared online shows a person wearing sunglasses, a tank top and shorts approaching Moo Deng and her mother, Jona, while holding a tablet, which appears to be recording or taking photos.
The person took advantage of evening hours — when staff were performing care duties — to sneak into the enclosure and stayed there for several minutes before staff noticed him, Narongwit said, and didn’t try and flee when the zoo called the police.
Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng sleeps on the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, Thursday, Sept. 19, 2024.
AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit
Authorities initially charged the person with trespassing, but an investigation remains to be ongoing. He has since been released on bail, the zoo confirmed.
Get breaking National news
Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox because it happens so you will not miss a trending story.
Narongwit said the zoo intends to pursue legal motion.
The suspect has not been identified by police.
Moo Deng and Jona were unharmed, and the person didn’t try and touch them. They could have experienced some distress, the zoo said in a Facebook post, adding that staff have been fastidiously monitoring the young hippo and her mother.
It also urged visitors to “strictly follow all rules and directions from staff for the security of each themselves and the wildlife.”
Moo Deng eats a fruit-topped cake together with her mother, Jona.
Lauren DeCicca / Getty Images
Moo Deng shot to fame soon after she was born in 2024, due to a zookeeper who posted photographs and videos of the newborn hippo on social media as she went about her day.
Since then, she has attracted crowds from across the globe, keen to catch a glimpse of the hippo in real life and to snap pictures and videos of her cutest moments.
The spike in visitors since Moo Deng’s fame has been so significant that the zoo needed to limit public access to the newborn’s enclosure to five-minute windows throughout the day during weekends.
Moo deng, which accurately means “bouncy pork” in Thai, is a sort of meatball. The name was chosen by fans in a social media poll, and it matches her siblings’ names: Moo Toon (stewed pork) and Moo Waan (sweet pork). There’s also a standard hippo on the zoo named Kha Moo (stewed pork leg).
The Khao Kheow Open Zoo, about 100 kilometres southeast of Bangkok, spans 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) and is home to greater than 2,000 animals.
It runs breeding programs for a lot of endangered species, comparable to the pygmy hippopotamus, which is native to West Africa and threatened by poaching and habitat loss. There are only 2,000-3,000 of them left within the wild.
— With files from The Associated Press
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.