Happy first birthday to the cutest, sassiest queen, Moo Deng!

Yes, believe it or not, friends, we’ve had a whole YEAR of Moo Deng in our lives. Our beloved queen of bouncy pork celebrated with days of birthday activities this week. Let’s check out some of our favorite video clips to rejoice with her!

Moo Deng was born on July 10, 2024, at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo, a two-hour drive south of Bangkok in Si Racha, Chonburi Province, Thailand. She skyrocketed in internet popularity within a few months as her keeper, Atthapon Nundee, started making videos for fun to highlight playful events from his days spent with the sassy baby hippo.

Moo Deng’s popularity spiked so fast that she even merited her own sketch on Saturday Night Live. The message is clear: despite her cuteness, Moo Deng is working hard chasing mom, biting her trainer’s knee, and staying beautifully pink and moisturized by trying to attack the water from a hose. Respect the hustle, please.

Moo Deng has continued her energetic, opinionated behavior as she grows up. Is this almost four minutes of Moo Deng harassing her mom, Jona, who is just trying to have a quick meal? Yes, yes, it is. Apologies to all the parents in our audience who are immediately traumatized.

This past week, Moo Deng enjoyed her birthday ‘cake’ of fruits and veggies with her mom, while her adoring fans looked on. While the zoo is no longer seeing the record-breaking visitor numbers of peak Moo Deng fame, thousands still came out Thursday to celebrate with her (hitting 12000 by the afternoon according to Associated Press) — some of whom traveled thousands of miles to do so! The zoo held four days of activities in honor of the bouncy little meatball, and their online auctions of photos, footprints, and even a food container raised funds for the care of all the animals at Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

Finally, let’s enjoy this compilation of some of her cutest, most personality-filled photos while we talk about the serious business. Moo Deng’s popularity brought a dying species to the limelight. Pygmy hippo babies are all the more critical because there are so few, with an estimated global population of roughly 2000-2500 adults in the wild. Humanity remains their biggest enemy, with habitat destruction and hunting in their native forests and swamps of West Africa (primarily Liberia and Cote D’Ivoire) resulting in an Endangered classification on the IUCN‘s Threatened Species (or Red) list and by the Zoological Society of London.

You can see Moo Deng on Nundee’s TikTok account (where he continues posting regular videos of her vibing through life), as well as the zoo’s YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), and TikTok channels.