If you think you’ve thrown a good birthday bash—bouncy house, questionable sheet cake, maybe that one uncle who brings his own karaoke machine—let me introduce you to Moo Deng’s first birthday party. Picture the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand: nearly 2,000 acres dedicated to animal care, suddenly teeming with guests all hoping to catch a glimpse of a pygmy hippo with a name meaning “bouncy pork.” It’s not every day an animal’s birthday turns into a four-day international fanfest, but The Independent documents just that scenario.

The Star Attraction (and Her Global Entourage)

Children’s birthday parties tend to be energetic, chaotic affairs even at the best of times. Now magnify that energy with thousands of hippo devotees—12,000 by one afternoon, according to statements by the zoo’s director. Not all attendees were locals, either. The report details one particularly dedicated fan, Molly Swindall, making a rapid jaunt from New York just for the event, squeezing an international trip into a 30-hour window between work shifts.

Swindall wasn’t alone in her devotion: fans from Texas and even Malaysia joined the festivities, including office worker Jennifer Tang, who confessed she routinely brightens her workdays by perusing Moo Deng’s photos—so much so that her entire office was in on her journey and allowed her a week off to be part of the celebration. The kind of commitment usually reserved for splashy pop concerts now seems to apply to hippo birthdays.

The allure, as illustrated through the outlet’s interviews, owes a lot to Moo Deng’s online fame. Short videos from her keeper Atthapon Nundee—scenes ranging from bath-time squirming to affectionate nibbles—have elevated the diminutive hippo to something of a digital mascot. Tang’s coworkers weren’t the only ones invested; birthday guests crowded around with phones and cameras, singing “Happy Birthday” as a fruit-and-veggie cake was presented pondside. The mood? Exuberant, yet oddly peaceful—Moo Deng herself seemed unfazed by the commotion, content to relax in the water.

Party Favors With a Conservation Twist

This wasn’t a simple zoo day with streamers. Over the course of four days, the Khao Kheow Open Zoo treated guests to a slate of activities—including online auctions featuring Moo Deng memorabilia like photos and footprints, as well as a bidding war for the chance to sponsor her cake. The outlet notes that the honor brought in a hefty 100,000 baht (just over $3,000). It’s safe to say no supermarket sheet cake in history has sparked such financial enthusiasm.

Details surrounding Moo Deng’s name and family add to the sense of carnival whimsy. Fans, via a social media poll, selected the moniker, which is also the label for a kind of Thai meatball. This fits right in with the peculiarly meaty names of her siblings: Moo Toon (“stewed pork”) and Moo Waan (“sweet pork”). And yes, an unrelated hippo holds the title Kha Moo—“stewed pork leg.” You begin to suspect there’s a culinary naming theme at play, though no one interviewed seemed to find it odd. Perhaps the local equivalent of naming your pet “Pot Roast” and moving on.

A Party With a Purpose

Amid all the costumed children and amused adults, the underlying message was conservation. According to statements by Khao Kheow’s director, Moo Deng now serves as a living emblem—a way to encourage visitors to reflect on the zoo’s breeding programs and, more broadly, the precarious state of pygmy hippos worldwide. The species, native to West Africa, is threatened by poaching and deforestation, with only about 2,000 to 3,000 remaining in the wild. Earlier in the report, it’s mentioned that spikes in zoo attendance after Moo Deng’s birth have started to subside, but the birthday brought in numbers reminiscent of peak fandom.

By packaging a conservation mission into an event as photogenic and fun as a hippo’s first birthday, the zoo seems to have hit on something: emotion, curiosity, and the power of social media join forces, drawing attention to animals whose fate might otherwise be ignored outside of niche circles. The fact that thousands will travel, celebrate, and even fiercely compete to sponsor a vegetable birthday cake for an endangered species—well, that’s a contemporary twist on animal advocacy.

When Your Own Birthday Plans Pale in Comparison

It’s difficult not to feel, at least momentarily, that every backyard gathering has just been upstaged by a fruit-crowned hippopotamus in Thailand with international fans and a four-day party. There’s something gently absurd—and quietly charming—about the notion that, thanks to the internet, a baby hippo can serve as both celebrity and conservation ambassador.

Will I fly across the world for an animal’s birthday? Personally, my passport has limits (and my cake budget, even more so). And yet, there’s real satisfaction in knowing that somewhere at this very moment animal lovers are harmonizing “Happy Birthday” to a glistening, watermelon-sized hippo, all caught in the lens of a million phones.

Sometimes, it takes the world’s oddest parties to remind us how delightfully weird—and connected—our planet can be. Wouldn’t it be something if every endangered species could get a bash as joyful as Moo Deng’s? If only the cake alone could save them.