Celebrity Thai hippo Moo Deng goes live online 24/7 for fans

Khao Kheow Open Zoo has begun live streaming Moo Deng to serve her fans worldwide. The zoo earned more than 12 million baht from Sept 1–19 amid a visitor influx spurred by interest in the animal, and expects to gain up to 200 million baht in revenue from one million visitors in its 2024 fiscal year ending this month.
The zoo’s director Narongwit Chodchoy said on Saturday the public’s obsession with the two-month-old baby pygmy hippo has resulted in a 50% increase of the number of visitors to the zoo.
Some 81,786 people visited Khao Kheow Open Zoo between Sep 1 and 19, during which the zoo earned a total of 12.97 million baht from ticket sales. He added the zoo expects to welcome over one million visitors in total and reap a total of more than 200 million baht for current fiscal year ending this month.
Mr Narongwit said the craze for Moo Deng is expected to lead to a higher number of foreign visitors to his zoo, especially those from other Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea.
In addition, he said the zoo has recently launched a number of 24-hour live streams on zoodiolive.com to allow those interested to watch its animals, including Moo Deng, live. About 44,000 viewers watched the streams on Friday night, said Mr Narongwit.
Mr Narongwit said visitors are especially interested in seeing Moo Deng from 7.45am to 9am when she usually runs and jumps around while the zoo’s staff clean her pen and during the afternoon when the staff feed her mother Jona.
During these periods, the zoo requires visitors wishing to pay Moo Deng a visit to queue up and allows each of them to watch the little hippo for five minutes.
If they want more time, they have to queue again.
Meanwhile, Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix organisers officially invited Moo Deng to watch the race next year in Florida.
The zoo also sold a first lot of 700 Moo Deng T-shirts at its Green Mountain restaurant at a price of 329 baht.