Heidi!

BERLIN, Germany — Heidi, the cross-eyed opossum, is the latest creature to rocket from Germany's front pages to international recognition, capturing the world's imagination with her bright, black eyes turned toward her pointed pink nose.

Since the first photos were published in December, the marsupial from Leipzig Zoo has attracted more Facebook fans than Chancellor Angela Merkel. Now more than 164,000 fans from as far away as Bangkok and Montreal and clear across Europe are exclaiming "so cute!!" and "so sweet." And the "Likes" keep coming.

Experts say that like Knut, Berlin's famous fluffy white polar cub who was abandoned by his mother, and Paul, the late octopus who correctly predicted the outcome of all of Germany's 2010 World Cup games and Spain's victory in the final, the hype surrounding Heidi is fed by a human weakness for cuddly looking critters and the ability of modern mass media to spread images around the globe instantly.

Bangkok resident Julie Queen-Vichitthanarurk said she heard about Heidi on the local radio station on the way to work, and raced home to find a picture on the internet and become a "fan" on Facebook.

"Right away when I saw her picture, I feel in love with her!" the 40-year-old told The Associated Press in an Facebook message. "There is just something so sweet about her that made my heart melt."

It is exactly that feeling that humans crave, making such "cute" animal images so popular.

"It triggers a reaction in our unconsciousness, when we see these creatures that make us think of children," said Peter Walschburger, a biological psychologist at Berlin's Free University.

Media expert Steffen Damm said it is not only the cuddly crowd, but aspects including "bizarre/slimy," seen in Paul, or "wacky," like Heidi's crossed eyes, that pique interest.

"Animals are so innocent — in a way that we no longer are," Damm said. "They remind us of our lost connection to nature."

Leipzig Zoo insisted the "media resonance was surprising and not planned," but it has nevertheless moved to protect the rights to her name and cross-eyed image - believed to be the result of pressure on her eyes created by fatty deposits. The zoo says the squint doesn't hurt her.

Heidi sits in her interim enclosure, in the zoo in Leipzig, Germany.

Heidi first attracted attention after a local TV report about her upcoming home - a new nocturnal enclosure in the tropical environment - featured her as one of several animals in quarantine until it opens July 1. She will share her enclosure with her sister Naira and their male companion, Teddy. All three arrived at Leipzig Zoo on May 5, 2010.

"She definitively won't be Germany's next Super Opossum," zookeeper Michael Eisner told MDR television, as Heidi squinted up at him from a cage for a documentary about the zoo in December.

He couldn't have been more wrong.

The clip attracted so much attention on the internet, the station has developed 10 episodes featuring Heidi and a local stuffed animal manufacture, Koesen, has adapted its line of plush opossums to include a white one with black ears and, of course, crossed-eyes.