Zoo Curator Fired After Buffalo Named Donald Trump Goes Viral

A zoo curator in Bangladesh has reportedly been fired after a 1,500-pound albino buffalo became an international spectacle for one very unusual reason: people thought it looked like President Donald Trump.

The massive white buffalo first went viral after visitors noticed its pale coloring and tuft of blond, slicked-back hair bore a striking resemblance to Trump’s famous combover. What started as a local curiosity quickly became a political sideshow, drawing crowds, social media chatter, and eventually government intervention.

The animal was originally set to be slaughtered ahead of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim festival of sacrifice. But after the buffalo became a viral sensation, Bangladesh’s government stepped in and ordered it transferred to the national zoo in Dhaka, citing security concerns and an unusual level of public interest.

Once inside the zoo, the buffalo’s exhibit reportedly featured a sign reading “Donald Trump,” according to local media cited by the Associated Press.

That sign has since been removed.

Now, the zoo curator has been fired.

Officials have not publicly explained the exact reason for the firing, but the timing has only added to the drama surrounding the animal’s sudden rise from livestock market curiosity to global political punchline.

The buffalo’s strange fame began on a farm outside Dhaka, where owner Ziauddin Mridha said the animal had been purchased at a cattle market about 10 months earlier. Mridha said it was his younger brother who came up with the name.

“My younger brother named the buffalo Donald Trump because the hair on the front of its head resembles Donald Trump,” he told Reuters.

And the name stuck.

Soon, photos of the animal spread online, with people pointing to its pale skin, broad face, and unusual blondish tuft as an uncanny animal-world version of the American president. Crowds reportedly began flocking to see it in person.

For some visitors, the resemblance was impossible to ignore.

“There is a resemblance to Donald Trump in its eyes, hairstyle, and skin color,” student Mohammed Nasim told the Associated Press.

Nasim went even further, joking that the buffalo’s newfound celebrity status also seemed strangely Trump-like.

“And just as Donald Trump has a distinctive personality and lifestyle, this buffalo, after going viral, is now living a similar kind of life, enjoying a lot of attention and special treatment,” he said.

The buffalo’s sudden transfer to the national zoo also appears to have saved its life. It had been destined for sacrifice before officials intervened and moved it to public display. The government later refunded the farmer after taking custody of the animal.

Despite the political circus around its name, Mridha described the buffalo itself as peaceful.

“Despite its striking appearance, it is very calm by nature,” he said. “It is an albino buffalo, and animals of this type are generally gentle and do not become aggressive unless provoked.”

Not everyone found the joke funny.

One Dhaka resident, Mohammad Joynal Adedin, said naming a farm animal after Trump was disrespectful.

“Giving a farm animal the name of one of the world’s most influential leaders was certainly the wrong thing to do,” he told the AP. “It seems disrespectful. I think the farmer who did this made a poor decision.”

Still, the controversy has only made people more curious. Visitors have continued heading to the zoo to see the animal for themselves, with some saying they first heard online that “Donald Trump” was going to be sacrificed before later learning the buffalo had been spared.

The saga has turned into one of the stranger international Trump-related stories of the year: a viral albino buffalo, a removed zoo sign, a fired curator, and a crowd of visitors debating whether the resemblance is hilarious, insulting, or just too bizarre to ignore.

It is not the first time animals have been compared to Trump.

In 2017, a newly discovered moth was named Neopalpa donaldtrumpi because its yellowish-white scales reminded scientists of Trump’s hairstyle. In 2018, a newly discovered blind amphibian that buries its head in the sand was named Dermophis donaldtrumpi, a pointed reference to Trump’s climate change denial.

But this buffalo may have pulled off the rarest political stunt of all.

By accidentally resembling Donald Trump, it went viral, avoided slaughter, moved into the national zoo, and sparked a controversy big enough to cost a curator his job.