Moo Deng, Thailand's star baby hippo, picks Argentina to win the World Cup. [EPA]
Moo Deng, Thailand's star baby hippo, picks Argentina to win the World Cup. [EPA]

Moo Deng, the Thai baby hippo who shot to fame for predicting Donald Trump's election victory, has picked Argentina to win the World Cup final.

Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi Province, central Thailand, had Moo Deng predict the outcome of the North and Central America World Cup final on Saturday, according to EFE and other outlets. The hippo chose between two watermelons shaped like soccer balls, each marked with a country's abbreviation in English, and picked the one representing Argentina.

A zoo official said the event was meant "to bring joy to visitors and give Moo Deng a chance to exercise," adding that there was "no intention to cheer for a specific team or encourage gambling, which is prohibited in Thailand."

At a similar event held ahead of last week's World Cup semifinals, Moo Deng picked France and England as the two finalists — both were eliminated, making the prediction a complete miss. The hippo did, however, correctly call Trump's victory ahead of the 2024 US presidential election, when he was the Republican candidate. NBC's "The Tonight Show" ran its own unofficial poll in September of that year, listing Moo Deng, Vice President Harris and then-former President Trump as candidates, with Moo Deng taking first place by a landslide with 93 percent support.

Born in June 2024, Moo Deng is a female pygmy hippo who drew immediate attention for her chubby, endearing appearance. Visitors flocked to Khao Kheow Open Zoo, and she became a social media sensation. In December of that year, Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin donated 10 million baht ($296,000) to the zoo as a Christmas gift for Moo Deng.

Animal predictions of World Cup winners or election outcomes have never been proven reliable, but similar cases have a long history. During the 2010 South Africa World Cup, a German octopus named Paul correctly predicted Spain's victory, earning a reputation for near-mystical foresight. At the 2018 Russia tournament, a cat named Achilles correctly called all four of Russia's group-stage matches.


andy@heraldcorp.com