Mamadou Ndiaye became an internet zoologist making TikTok and YouTube videos that he classifies as edutainment. His videos have a billion “likes” on TikTok. Photo credit: NJ.com
Editor’s note: Sections of this SEBS alumni highlight were extracted from the NJ.com article, “He talks about animals and 20 million people listen. Meet N.J.’s viral TikTok zoologist,” written by Amy Kuperinsky.
Mamadou Ndiaye graduated with a degree in Environmental Sciences from Rutgers School of Environmental and Biological Sciences (SEBS) in May 2019. When he and his fellow classmates walked across the Convocation stage at Passion Puddle on the George H. Campus to receive their degrees, little did they know that the time-honored tradition of in-person graduation exercises would be upended a short year later.
In fact, Ndiaye and his newly-minted fellow undergraduate alumni at Rutgers and across the globe, boldly went about their lives, some pursuing their dreams of graduate school, others stepping into the workforce to earn a living or otherwise trying to make their mark in the world.
As we learn in his interview with NJ.com, Ndiaye “started working in environmental management as a New York-based field technician for an engineering company, visiting sites and conducting surveys to test for volatile organic compounds. Then the COVID-19 pandemic struck.”
Mamadou Ndiaye narrating one of his viral videos. Photo credit: @mndiaye_97 via TikTok.
“Like many people hunkering down, he downloaded TikTok in April 2020. The next day, he found himself without a job.”
“Essentially, I was just laid off,” says Ndiaye, whose work depended upon in-person visits.”
He had the time, and without a source of income, he first turned to making TikTok videos focused on gym banter and online dating jokes.
“I’m at home, I’m unemployed, I didn’t really have anything better to do,” Ndiaye says.”
His first effort, posted April 16, 2020, was a comedy skit about online dating. While he was posting relentlessly, his videos never received the views that were to come just a few short weeks later.
On June 13, 2020, inspired by his childhood infatuation with National Geographic, Ndiaye posted a video that was to change his life.
“At the time, he didn’t anticipate that the general public would share his “animal nerd” interests. But he gave it a try anyway, posting a video with a simple premise: “Animals are way bigger than you think.”
The success of this video led to a regular series focused on the sheer size of animals like hippos, elephants and saltwater crocodiles. He’d struck gold, with the series racking up millions of views, seemingly overnight.
A Long Connection to Animals
A self-described “animal nerd,” Ndiaye has always felt connected to animals.
As a child, “he eagerly consumed the children’s wildlife magazine Zoobooks and National Geographic Kids. He’d also absorb “weird” animal facts from the Animal Planet series “The Most Extreme.” While he was restricted from watching TV on weekdays, he found a loophole with shows on that channel and the Discovery channel, since they were educational.
“My parents definitely fed into that creativity, that natural curiosity,” he says.
Mamadou Ndiaye as a child. Photo Credit: AtlasObscura VORACIOUS, AN IMPRINT OF LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY.
When he was six, Ndiaye, whose favorite superhero was Spider-Man, ate a spider in the hopes that this would allow him to transform into a web-slinging hero. Instead, he fell off the swings, breaking both of his wrists, and had to wear a cast for three months.
He was also known to play the video game “Zoo Tycoon,” but he didn’t have many pets — his parents weren’t too keen on having them in their apartment.
“The most I got were fish and they didn’t make it too long,” Ndiaye says.
He volunteered at a shelter so he could play with the dogs and cats. He was open to most any animal — he gladly held snakes as a child — though pigeons always seemed to creep him out. He called them “gutter chickens” on TikTok, and recently devoted a 15-minute YouTube video to the ubiquitous birds and their origin story.”
Building His Following and Looking Towards The Future
Almost four years in on this unlikely journey, Ndiaye is now his own boss, working full time making TikTok and YouTube videos that he classifies as edutainment.
“In the beginning, the zoology enthusiast earned money every month through the TikTok Creator Fund. While he found the app to be a good place for building a following (especially with people home during the pandemic), he couldn’t subsist on that alone.”
“He’s found more financial security via Google’s AdSense on YouTube,” where his channel Casual Geographic hosts “videos that routinely draw millions of views. He also has a manager and partnership that connects him to sponsorship deals that he feels align with the mission of his channel. Fans chip in, too, at his Patreon, Hood Nature.”
While Ndiaye currently creates his engaging videos at home, his goal is to be out in the field where the animals are, creating real-life content for his millions of devoted followers.
“The next step would be … being able to go out into the field and actually witness and show what I’m talking about — have the animals actually there,” he says. “So that would definitely be my ideal progression for my career.”
And, make no mistake, he’s diversifying. He’s turned his TikTok fame into a book, 100 Animals That Can F*cking End You, which rose to the top of Amazon’s Cat, Dog and Animal Humor category, as well as its Science and Scientist Humor categories. Add author to the list of accomplishments for this unlikely but viral internet zoologist.
You can find Mamadou Ndiaye at @mndiaye_97 on TikTok and Instagram and Casual Geographic on YouTube.
Read the full NJ.com article.
