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You might have heard of King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table but how familiar are you with the Knights of the Rotund Table?

This collection of animals is the creation of 26-year-old TikTokker Indy Pine. In her videos, she’s been highlighting cute but often endangered animals from around the world, and matching their personalities with those of the mythological knights.

Hundreds of thousands of people have already voted for their favourite nominees, with internet sensations Moo Deng and Pesto among those selected. Several of her videos have over one million views, with the announcement of the currently-unnamed baby white rhino from Dubai breaking the five million mark.

����ý Bitesize sat down at the Rotund Table with Indy to find out where the idea came from, and how what started as a hobby allowed her to develop impressive digital skills as well as helping animals around the world.

'Everywhere else is so stressful'

Scrolling through TikTok one day, Indy stumbled across a panda in a South Korean zoo called Fu Bao. Having recently left her job, Indy was finding it “a bit weird going from working to not working” and subsequently was feeling stressed. Watching videos of the celebrity panda - whose visitors would queue for five to six hours to see - proved to be “very sweet and very therapeutic”.

Soon, Indy was following the antics of other pandas and learning more about their personalities and backstories. One of China’s most famous pandas is Hua Hua, known for her distinctive appearance and gentle personality. Such is her fame, Hua Hua was awarded the honorary position of Director of Chengdu Culture and Tourism Bureau.

When Indy began making videos about the panda, they quickly took off: “Some of their backstories and such are quite elaborate for pandas, which is very funny, but people loved it so much that I just kept making all the videos.”

Social media can often be a toxic place, but Indy found that her videos didn’t attract that sort of negativity: “When you kind of find an area or a subject that's very wholesome and people aren't really fighting over anything because it's pretty much just cute and it's funny, I think you end up probably really wanting to stick with that because everywhere else is so stressful.”

Enter Moo Deng and Pesto

In September 2024, a new animal celebrity burst onto the world stage: Moo Deng, the Thai female pygmy hippo.

At a similar time, an Australian penguin chick called Pesto gained online fame for his unusually large size.

With people drawing comparisons between the two, or arguing that one was better, Indy felt the need to step in: “I was telling my friend, I think they’re colleagues. I think they’re co-workers…

"We need to make them come together so people can stop comparing them," Indy reflected. "And then people need to know about Hua Hua as well.”

It was this thought that sparked the creation of the Knights of the Rotund Table.

The Knights of the Rotund Table

Indy’s idea was to match up each celebrity animal with one of the legendary Knights of the Round Table and associated figures. Hua Hua became King Arthur, Pesto became Merlin and Moo Deng became Lancelot.

With the original three decided, she opened the project up to a public vote. People are able to nominate their favourite animals and vote for which one should be admitted to the Rotund Table. To be accepted, the animal must either be young or act young, and be quite round.

With an animal selected, Indy researches its backstory, conservation status and other interesting information, as well as creating drawings and animations.

A self-taught digital artist, Indy has been working on her creations for so many hours that she can really see an improvement, particularly in recent weeks, having learnt to turn her static images into animation.

Finally, there’s the all-important choice of knight.

Having grown up watching the ����ý’s Merlin, Indy was already familiar with the major figures of the King Arthur myths, such as Merlin and Guinevere.

But with the Rotund Table set to expand, she needed to learn more about the lesser-known knights in order to find their animal match. It takes a few hours per video to do the necessary research, although the older animals with more developed personalities are generally easier to match.

Discovering the cultural significance of animals

Some of the animals featured in the Knights of the Rotund Table hold special significance for certain cultures and countries.

Take the example of Wakan Gli (meaning ‘returns sacred’), a rare White Buffalo calf born in the USA’s Yellowstone National Park.

For Native American tribes, including the Lakota people, the calf’s appearance fulfils a sacred prophecy but also delivers a reminder of the responsibility humanity has towards nature.

Such is the calf’s importance, a special naming ceremony took place in June 2024.

For Indy, discovering the significance of Wakan Gli and other animals has been a highlight:

“Learning about what animals are sacred to different cultures, different mythology surrounding them, has been really interesting as well," says Indy.

"Even just learning about where a lot of the animals come from and the countries they originate from.

"Like the orangutan that was born in Philadelphia, he's been named after a city in Sumatra (Jambi), which is an Indonesian island.”

Receiving support from zoos and sanctuaries

With the Knights of the Rotund Table proving so popular, zoos and sanctuaries across the world are keen to get their animals involved, to Indy’s delight.

Some zoos have been particularly invested: “Dartmoor Zoo really want Rodney, their baby capybara, they really want him on the table. And in Miami they have this tapir, he was knighted two days ago. They were ecstatic. They wanted their little guy on that table for so long."

As well as keeping her TikTok audience entertained and honing her artistic skills, Indy's videos are also making a real-world difference.

For example, Indy’s followers have also contributed to a fundraiser for Possum the pig, who lost his ear while defending his herd of sheep from a dog attack.

Given the very young age of some of the animals, they don’t always have names yet. Miami’s tapir was publicly nameless, so Indy gave him the stage name Chao Chao. Afterwards, she received a message from the zoo keepers saying they'd originally named him Makan, but decided to officially give him the nickname of Chao Chao because they really liked it.

Putting the focus on cats and dogs

Given their popularity on social media, you might be surprised to learn that no cats or dogs feature in the Knights of the Rotund Table. This was a deliberate choice.

Having received numerous suggestions for cats and dogs, and owning a rescue dog herself, Indy is planning a spin-off series which will focus solely on them. Each cat or dog will be buddied up with one of the Knights of the Rotund Table.

Indy hopes to raise funds for rescue centres, helping with their food costs and vet bills.

This article was published in October 2024