WTF! HOW DID THIS CROSS-EYED POSSUM GET 180,000 FRIENDS ON FACEBOOK?

Move over, David Hasselhoff. A cross-eyed possum is Germany's latest, biggest celebrity.

Heidi the opossum has more than 180,000 Facebook fans (more than twice that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel), a popular YouTube song and a stuffed animal named after her.

The 2 1/2-year-old creature, who was moved from a zoo in Denmark to the Leipzig Zoo, is all the rage in Germany -- even though she won't be on public display until July.

Heidi's caretakers can't explain why she's cross-eyed. And while some experts believe her condition could have come from an unhealthy diet when she was younger that caused fat deposits to build up behind her eyes, there's no need to be concerned.

Poor vision doesn't affect the small animal. Because she’s nocturnal, Heidi relies mostly on her sense of smell to get around.

The public is highly anticipating seeing the opossum, which has left zookeepers puzzled by her popularity.

"The Heidi sensation was surprising and unplanned," said Leipzig Zoo spokeswoman Maria Saegebarth.

"It's great that there has been a lot of interest, but we had nothing to do with the media hype."

Heidi is just one example of animal-star frenzy in Germany over the past few years.

Knut, an extremely adorable polar bear cub that the Berlin Zoo hand-reared after his mom rejected him, earned the zoo $1.3 million in one year.

And Paul the octopus garnered international headlines when he correctly predicted the results of each of Germany’s World Cup soccer matches.

SOURCE