Identify: Panya the pygmy hippo.
Age: About three weeks.
Look: Lovable, to a world-conquering diploma.
God, I’ve by no means needed to listen to a few three-week-old pygmy hippo extra. Proper? The whole lot is so bleak in the intervening time, solely the sight of a tiny child animal can save us now.
How tiny are we speaking? Oh, unbelievably tiny. There are photos of a two-week-old Panya standing subsequent to a lettuce. Guess what? They’re the identical measurement!
That is too cute. I can’t deal with it. Nor can anybody. Panya, born at a zoo within the German metropolis of Duisburg on the finish of final month, has already turn out to be a sensation on-line. He has pushed Reddit right into a frenzy, with one commenter frothing: “Have a look at that little bean!! Welcome to the enjoyable, infant! We will put up about you with reckless abandon.” It’s similar to Moo Deng once more.
Sorry, who? Moo Deng? The pygmy hippo who went viral after she was born final 12 months in Si Racha, Thailand. Certainly you do not forget that.
Is she smaller and cuter than Panya? Effectively, given she is greater than a 12 months older than Panya, she most likely isn’t smaller, no.
Ugh, yuck, not . What? Why? Certainly Moo Deng hasn’t misplaced all her enchantment purely as a result of you have got been distracted by one other child animal?
Get that historical has-been out of my sight. However certainly the world is sufficiently big to comprise two miniature hippopotamuses on the similar time. Particularly on condition that the World Wildlife Fund reckons there are solely about 2,500 pygmy hippos out within the wild as it’s.
Pay attention, it isn’t my fault that pygmy hippos shortly develop out of their cuteness. The place can I see Panya, the tiny king of my coronary heart? Proper now, nowhere. He’s nonetheless so younger and small that he’s being stored in a personal enclosure together with his mom. Ultimately, Duisburg zoo will put him on public show.
My coronary heart will explode once I see him. Cautious, now. Viral fame doesn’t usually sit effectively with animals.
What are you speaking about? Bear in mind Knut, the orphaned polar bear from Berlin zoo? He was unveiled to 400 journalists in 2007, and proved so common that the zoo’s attendance that 12 months rose by 30%.
That’s so lovely. Additionally, keep in mind how Knut had encephalitis, had a seizure and died in entrance of about 700 onlookers on the age of 4? And do not forget that a number one zoologist claimed that life within the public eye had turned him into “a psychopath, hooked on human consideration”?
Jesus. Sorry, too bleak. I’ll maintain it mild.
Basically you’re saying we shouldn’t get too enthusiastic about Panya, nor put any undue strain on him? No, be excited by all means, however simply retain a way of perspective. A child pygmy hippo is for all times, keep in mind, not only for Christmas.
Do say: “The web loves cute animals.”
Don’t say: “Come up Panya, saviour of humankind.”
This article was first revealed by The Guardian on 16 December 2025. Lead Picture: Panya the pygmy hippo at Duisburg zoo, Germany, 15 December 2025. {Photograph}: Thilo Schmülgen/Reuters.
