Credit: MGR Online VDO / YouTube (CC BY 3.0)

The man, who has not been named, was convicted of trespassing and fined 10,000 baht (around €267 or £233), the BBC reports.

Video footage taken by other zoo visitors showed Chodchoy inside the enclosure, filming Moo Deng with a tablet.

Zoo officials said Moo Deng was “slightly startled” but otherwise unharmed by the intrusion.

Director Narongwit Chodchoy said the fine “shows that no one can violate animals’ rights, no matter whether they are in an enclosure or in the wild”.

Moo Deng – whose name roughly translates to “bouncy pork” – became a viral sensation in 2024 as social media users gushed over her small size.

Now a full-size pygmy hippopotamus, she continues to draw huge numbers of tourists to her home at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Si Racha.