‘Tiny Tank’: Toronto can’t get enough of its very own Moo Deng. Here’s why its birth matters

Go crazy, internet, because Toronto just got its very own Moo Deng.

Over the weekend, an endangered pygmy hippopotamus calf was born at the Toronto Zoo, becoming one of only a couple thousand pygmy hippos that exist in the world. 

Early Sunday afternoon, a 20-year-old pygmy hippo named Kindia gave birth to the unnamed calf. Within just a few hours, the calf was already walking around their Little Hippo Hollow habitat. 

While this is exciting news for both the Toronto Zoo and social media users who love cute things, it’s important to remember that pygmy hippos are considered an endangered species in need of protection. 

“Welcoming a pygmy hippo calf is far more than a celebration of new life. Pygmy hippos are endangered, and their wild populations continue to decline due to habitat loss and human pressures,” Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong said in a press release. 

“This birth represents the critical role modern accredited zoos play in conservation, scientific collaboration, and maintaining healthy populations that contribute to the long-term survival of the species. At your Toronto Zoo, it also reflects our mission of connecting people, animals, conservation science, and traditional knowledge to fight extinction, and reminds us that every species saved is the result of collective action and shared responsibility.”

Why pygmy hippos are endangered

Laura Bolt, an Assistant Professor of Forest Conservation Biology at the University of Toronto, says pygmy hippos are so endangered because they’re native to only small undisturbed forest and swamps in a single African region — primarily in Liberia in West Africa.

“They are adapted to live in undisturbed forest and swamp environments in one region of Africa, and are threatened by habitat destruction and hunting. So many African forests from their range area are heavily fragmented that they have less preferred habitat,” Bolt explains. 

“Their being native to a fairly small geographic region, as opposed to having a distribution across the continent, also makes them more vulnerable to extinction and more of a conservation concern.”

Bolt says reports vary, but on the higher end, there are fewer than 5,000 pygmy hippos left in the wild worldwide. On the lower end, less than 2000 remain. 

In comparison, the worldwide common hippopotamus population ranges between 125,000 and 148,000, according to Save Animals Facing Extinction. 

Due to their extremely endangered status, pygmy hippo habitats — like Toronto Zoo’s Little Hippo Hollow — are kept away from humans. 

The best thing zoos can do to conserve pygmy hippo populations is to protect their wild forest habitats by removing human threat, Bolt says. 

“Pygmy hippos are able to breed successfully in zoos, but preserving wild populations should be the top priority and will be most effective for their conservation.”

But despite there not being many pygmy hippos left in the world, they’ve become quite internet famous. In 2025, Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo born at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand went viral. 

Toronto’s newest internet sensation

Social media users under Toronto Zoo’s X post already have name suggestions for the pygmy hippo calf. One comment reads, “TINY TANKKKKKK,” which other users have agreed with. There are now several comments along the same lines. For example, another comment reads, “Tiny Tank is such a perfect name.”

Whether Tiny Tank is a reference to the 1999 platformer video game of the same name or a reference to a hippo’s sturdy build, we’ll never know. 

But Bolt explains that we collectively go gaga over pygmy hippos because they’re round and look like newborn babies. Their rareness also attracts our attention, because we all like rare and cute things. 

“Moo Deng in particular has been marketed as an internet star and displays many behaviours in captivity that humans find appealing.”