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Thailand's Baby Pygmy Hippo Now Has an Official Song in 4 Languages

FILE -Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng and her mother Jona are seen at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, , Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
FILE -Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng and her mother Jona are seen at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, , Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
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Thailand's Baby Pygmy Hippo Now Has an Official Song in 4 Languages

FILE -Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng and her mother Jona are seen at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, , Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)
FILE -Two-month-old baby hippo Moo Deng and her mother Jona are seen at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province, Thailand, , Sept. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit, File)

In case you can’t get enough of the little pygmy hippo Moo Deng from Thailand, there's now an official song featuring the internet's favorite baby animal — released in four languages for her global fans.
The upbeat 50-second song “Moodeng Moodeng," available in Thai, English, Chinese and Japanese versions, features simple lyrics like “Moo Deng Moo Deng, boing boing boing/ Mommy mommy, play with me.” Its music video consists of short clips of the baby hippo bouncing, playing with her keeper or hanging out with her mom Jona, The Associated Press reported.
The catchy number was produced and written by well-known Thai composer Mueanphet Ammara, and released by one of Thailand's largest music companies, GMM Music.
Moo Deng — the name literally means “bouncy pork,” a type of meatball, in Thai — became a global phenomenon just a month after she was unveiled on Facebook by the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand’s southern Chon Buri province.
Fans say her name compliments her chaotic personality. Moo Deng likes to “deng,” or bounce, and her giddy bouncing has appeared all over social media in countless memes. Her image has been used by sports teams and businesses.
The hippo, now 4 months old, has drawn a huge amount of visitors to the zoo, which is around two-hour drive away from the capital Bangkok. The zoo estimated it has received 3,000 to 5,000 visitors a day on average in the past few months, and it's selling clothes, bedding and other merchandise based on Moo Deng.
Zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi has said the increasing income from Moo Deng will help its breeding programs for many endangered species like the pygmy hippopotamus, which is threatened by poaching and loss of habitat. The species is native to West Africa and there are only 2,000-3,000 of them left in the wild.
The zoo sits on 800 hectares (almost 2,000 acres) of land and is home to more than 2,000 animals.
All four versions of the Moo Deng song are available on YouTube and streaming platforms including Spotify and Apple Music.

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Varieties

Is Climate Change Making Tropical Storms More Frequent? Scientists Say It’s Unclear

A drone view shows a damaged area, following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Asheville, North Carolina, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a damaged area, following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Asheville, North Carolina, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
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Is Climate Change Making Tropical Storms More Frequent? Scientists Say It’s Unclear

A drone view shows a damaged area, following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Asheville, North Carolina, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)
A drone view shows a damaged area, following the passing of Hurricane Helene, in Asheville, North Carolina, US, September 29, 2024. (Reuters)

An unusual cluster of typhoons in the West Pacific and a series of powerful hurricanes in the Atlantic are raising questions about the impact that climate change is having on tropical storms across the globe.

As nations thrashed out the details of a new climate financing package at COP29 talks in Azerbaijan, the Philippines was hit by its sixth deadly typhoon in a month while the United States was recovering from two devastating hurricanes.

Scientists say it remains unclear how much climate change is reshaping the storm season, or if it is responsible for the rare appearance of four tropical cyclones at the same time in the West Pacific - the first time this has happened in November since 1961.

Higher sea surface temperatures speed up evaporation and provide additional "fuel" for tropical cyclones, boosting rainfall and wind speeds, they say.

And the latest assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published in 2023, expressed "high confidence" global warming would make storms more intense.

The Philippines' latest supertyphoon Man-Yi landed on Saturday, forcing the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents. At least eight people died on Monday, adding to a death toll of more than 160 since October.

"It is rare to see a cluster of four tropical cyclones in the western north Pacific at the same time," said Feng Xiangbo, a tropical storm researcher at Britain's University of Reading.

"(But) blaming climate change ... for this unprecedented event this week is not straightforward," he added.

Evidence suggests that while climate change is increasing storm intensity, it has also reduced their frequency, especially during what is typically the late season from October to November, Feng said.

This year, atmospheric waves that have recently been active near the equator could be an alternative explanation for the unusual uptick, Feng said, but their relationship with climate change is unclear.

The belt of high pressure known as the sub-tropical ridge, part of the global atmospheric circulation system, has been stronger and stretched further north and west than usual, according to Choy Chun Win, Senior Scientific Officer at the Hong Kong Observatory.

The ridge could have steered the storms in a westerly direction, diverting them away from cooler waters and wind shears, which would normally weaken them, providing an explanation why four could coexist, he said.

"However, more research is required to assess the contribution of climate change to the chance occurrence of the multiple tropical cyclones and the longer tropical cyclone season," he added.

Ben Clarke, weather researcher with London's Grantham Institute on Climate Change and Environment, said it "would make sense" that rising ocean temperatures would extend the typhoon season, but the evidence is not conclusive.

"There has been a clear recent increase in the number of tropical cyclones affecting the Philippines in its less active season from approximately December to February, but this doesn't tell us much about ... June-November," he said.

STRONGER HURRICANES

In an analysis published on Wednesday, US weather researchers Climate Central said Atlantic hurricanes have intensified significantly this year as a result of record-breaking ocean warming.

Since 2019, warmer temperatures have driven average wind speeds up by 18 miles per hour (29 kph) and pushed three hurricanes into the highest Category 5, the study said.

The two deadly Category 5 hurricanes known as Helene and Milton, which hit Florida in September and October respectively, would have been unlikely without climate change, it said.

Research is still ongoing on whether tropical cyclones are becoming more frequent, but there is high scientific confidence that warmer sea temperatures are driving up rainfall and causing higher storm surges, said Daniel Gilford, Climate Central's lead hurricane researcher.

"While other factors contribute to each storm's strength, the impacts of elevated sea surface temperatures are prominent and significant," he said.

"In the Atlantic, more than 80% of storms since 2019 were clearly influenced by warm ocean temperatures caused by carbon pollution."