Not to be a killjoy (though it is what I do best) but the unsafe and rough handling of a baby Pygmy hippo in a pretty substandard Thai zoo being meme-ed into something funny and cute really shows just how much groupthink plays into public perception of animal welfare.
Moo Deng shows avoidance, threat displays and stress around her keepers that are constantly man-handling her, blasting her with a hose and harassing her. The enclosure is mostly concrete, which is horrible for her soft feet. There looks to be some substrate but there doesn’t seem to be any areas for wallowing or deep water wading.
There’s also very easy access of this hippo to the public with no places to hide. I’d love if someone could shed more light on the enclosures but from what I’ve seen it’s not great.
Also the free contact and forcing into tubs that the keepers do is only going to create an avoidant and potentially aggressive and dangerous Pygmy hippo.
But the public happily overlook that because she’s cute. It’s a similar attitude with seals too.
Stop rewarding bad husbandry with clout. Baby animals deserve agency and respect and to grow up without getting harassed and feeling the need to defend themselves constantly.
Somewhat unrelated but that recent viral video of the pelican being manhandled in a shitty indoor facility is also driving me insane, but I guess it's funny because pelicans are evil or some shit.
This is the shittiest pelican enclosure I've ever seen, compare it to the second image at an actual zoo.
A few photos for context
Defensive behaviors!!!
Mouth open and trying to bite!!!
Thank you for adding these images! Gives me an excuse to go research hippo behaviour further for context:
Note that all of these mouth open behaviours are accompanied by either direct contact bite, avoidance related behaviour (turning body away, being chased, grabbed) and eyes are wide with the whites of her eyes visible.
Compared to examples of mouthing interaction with a baby common hippo like Fiona
Note the softer eyes, no wide bulging eyes or whites showing and no avoidance. Fiona was very young here and you’d expect to see “baby aggression” like frustration ect. But this looks more affiliative towards her keepers than aggressive.
Context helps a lot. In all the pictures of Moo Deng she’s being reached out to, touched or sprayed with a hose. That’s generally not the response you want to have to husbandry in a free contact setting.
And here in is Pygmy Hippo natural social behaviour with each other:
Soft eyes, mouths not completely open (which would be more of a threat display), affiliative interaction between a breeding pair.
Jaw sparring with a youngster in common hippos.
In this context, this is a free interaction with no force involved and is species specific between mum and calf.
I think it’s interesting to see the contrast between Moo Deng’s stress/threat behaviour compared to other common hippos and Pygmy hippo behaviour.