Have you met the biggest internet sensation of 2011?

Who is the biggest internet star of 2011 so far? Lady Gaga? Eminem? Wrong. It’s a fat, cross-eyed opossum from the Leipzig Zoo called Heidi. Check back through your forecasts by leading pundits about trends in 2011. I bet none of them saw that coming.

But with over 180 000 Facebook fans and a hit song on YouTube, Heidi is a veritable internet sensation. Her quirky, delightful appearance makes her instantly endearing and unforgettable. And the fact that she is woefully cross-eyed doesn’t seem to affect her health in the slightest.

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Possums, being nocturnal creatures, rely more on their sense of smell than sight.

Heidi is not the first ‘German’ animal to become a celebrity via social media. Knut, a polar bear born in a Berlin zoo in 2006 and rejected by its mother, became a global celebrity and the focus of “Knutmania” after an animal rights activist wrote that it was more humane to put the animal down that raise him as a ‘domestic pet’.

Heidi faces no such controversy, and the only threats she is facing is a high-fibre diet to help her lose the weight which could be responsible for making her eyes bulge in such a distinctive manner.

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