BOSTON – The new darling of social media and his name is Moo Deng. The baby pygmy hippo first won the hearts of enthusiasts at the zoo in Thailand and then devoured the world wide web faster than a lettuce.

It was just four years ago Franklin Park Zoo He had his own dwarf cubs, and now zoo officials there hope Moo Deng’s popularity could help endangered species.

The pygmy hippo’s habitat is shrinking

“They’re not a species that always attracts attention,” said Erica Farrell, assistant curator of tropical forest at the Franklin Park Zoo. “Pygmy hippos live only in a small area in a few countries in West Africa. Their habitat is shrinking as humans need space for themselves.”

Farrell helps care for Ptolemy at the Franklin Park Zoo. The pygmy hippo was born in the zoo and lives there with his mother and father. As you can imagine, he was surrounded by similar fanfare when he was born in 2020.

“If I say so myself, it was just as cute, if not cuter. Baby pygmy hippos are so small and they love to run around, it’s stupid,” Farrell said. “There are probably only 2,500 to 3,000 (pygmy hippos) left in the wild, and that’s an estimate.”

Their more famous cousin is the great river hippopotamus. Farrell says the river hippo is quite different. They live in large groups in large open spaces and in the major rivers of Africa. Pygmy hippos live alone and only come together to mate or raise their young. While pygmies still weigh 400 to 500 pounds, their smaller size is what gives pygmies their cute tag.

“There isn’t a lot of conservation work in the field for pygmy hippos,” Farrell said.

He hopes that Moo Deng’s recent appearance will help spur greater efforts to save endangered species around the world.