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If you value our coverage and want to support more of it, consider supporting us as a member. Join Us Over the past month, a Thai baby pygmy hippo named Moo Deng has captured the hearts of millions. For many of us, images of the plump creature have filled our screens with hours of delight as her squishy figure distracts us from the horrors in the news.
Is her meteoric rise due to her adorably rosy cheeks ? Or is it because she’s a sort of Grumpy Cat , with her screams and leg-chomping (which have veered into slightly concerning meme territory) the perfect fit for the chaos of 2024? Perhaps it’s instead the fact that she is a highly dangerous mammal in a bite-sized — some would even say delicious — form. If we look to art history, we find that Moo Deng is far from the first hippo to enchant audiences near and far, both in and outside of captivity. Just as depictions of Moo Deng ra.