Moo Deng ‘predicts’ Trump win

As Americans vote for their next president, the superstar baby pygmy hippo Moo Deng has predicted former president Donald Trump will win the election.
The forecast was made on Monday when Moo Deng’s caretaker at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chon Buri set out two pumpkin halves, each filled with pieces of dragon fruit, apples and carrots. One pumpkin had the name of Donald Trump carved in Thai on a watermelon rind, and the other that of Kamala Harris.
The almost-four-month-old calf ate the one with the name of the Republican candidate. Her mother, Jonah, ate the other with the name of the Democrat candidate.
The video was posted on the Kha Moo & the Gang Facebook page and TikTok and rapidly went viral, as well as being picked up by international media.
The government on Tuesday congratulated the Khao Kheow Open Zoo for its huge success in using Moo Deng as its soft power to attract local and international tourists, not to mention global media attention.
Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said on Tuesday that she wanted to bring her family to see Moo Deng because the little hippo was so cute. She made the comment after viewing an exhibition titled “Moo Deng: Soft Power from Nature in a Thai Zoo” at Government House.
The premier emphasised that the government is ready to support zoo tourism, said Jirayu Houngsub, a spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office.
Mr Jirayu said more than 250,000 tourists have travelled to the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in the past three months, generating income exceeding the expected target of more than 40 million baht.
In addition, he said, Moo Deng mania has helped stimulate the economy in communities around the zoo, as well as increasing the number of tourists in Chon Buri and Pattaya by as much as 80%.
The Zoological Park Organization, meanwhile, has begun a project to conserve the pygmy hippopotamus at Khao Kheow Open Zoo as the animal is an endangered species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and requires special care, he said.