"Hippo Birthday": Moo Deng the star hippopotamus celebrates his first birthday in Thailand

Khao Kheow Zoo has scheduled a series of events celebrating its star animal, including a parade, an influencer panel, an auction, and, of course, a cake. A Thai cosmetics executive spent 100,000 baht (2,600 euros) to sponsor what the famously gluttonous female mammal would have to swallow in no time.

As Thursday is a public holiday in Thailand, a Buddhist festival is expected to mark the occasion, and crowds are expected to gather at his enclosure, halfway between the capital Bangkok and the seaside resort of Pattaya.

Social media star

Moo Deng has taken the internet by storm with his diva-like antics and cute faces. Millions of people have watched the baby pygmy hippopotamus' antics, biting keepers, taking a bath, and resting next to his mother.

The zoo that houses it reported in September that it had quadrupled the number of tickets sold in one year. Moo Deng ('leaping pig' in Thai) fever has also been reflected in a wide range of merchandise.

Like many internet-famous animals, Moo Deng has taken to the social media classic of prediction with a certain flair: she predicted Donald Trump's victory in the November US elections.

Today, Thailand continues to cherish its most famous mascot, and the United States Embassy presented him with a stuffed animal in his image for the American Independence Day holiday on July 4th.

But at one year old, Moo Deng is no longer the chubby baby who melted internet hearts. At the end of June, she weighed 93 kilos, triple her weight eight months earlier, according to the zoo.

Digital intelligence firm Meltwater questioned in November whether the trend was "over."

In late September, his name was mentioned online more than 200,000 times in one day, prompted by a sketch on the popular American show Saturday Night Live, in which an actor dressed up as Moo Deng. More than a month later, the number had dropped to 34,000, according to their study.

"Moo Deng went viral very quickly after she was born, and maybe she's not as viral anymore," said Joshua Paul Dale, a professor specializing in "kawaii" ("cute" in Japanese) at Chuo University in Japan.

"Part of our appreciation for cuteness is knowing it's not going to last long," he says. "If something is super cute, you have to enjoy it now, because it's not going to last forever."

Moo Deng's fame has also helped raise awareness of the plight of his endangered species. The pygmy hippopotamus lives in the forests and swamps of West Africa, and prefers terrestrial habitats rather than aquatic ones, unlike its larger cousin, the common hippopotamus.