Move Over Moo Deng, Viral Penguin Pesto Is Making Waves

Beloved baby hippo Moo Deng may have won the hearts of the public, but a large, young penguin in Australia is stirring up some cuteness competition.

Commenters on Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium’s Instagram page are doting on the animal, calling him a “fluffy king.” “Pesto is the besto,” wrote another. A third called for the aquarium to start its own live feed for fans to watch him on. Either way, Pesto, a King penguin chick, who was born in January, is stealing hearts as he breaks history as the biggest chick the aquarium has ever seen.

Pesto weighs in at 21 kg, or 46 pounds, more than the average adult King penguin at just nine-months old. Male King penguins typically weigh slightly more than females, according to Britannica, but adults of his species typically weigh anywhere from 21-40 pounds.

Sea Life attributes his impressive size, in part, to his biological father, Blake—their largest and oldest penguin. But Pesto also has quite the appetite. When Pesto was just six months old, he ate an average of 25 fish per day over four meals , which is double what other adult King penguins at the aquarium get, according to an Instagram reel posted on Sea Life’s social media page. His parents weigh half his size—some 10 kg, or 22 pounds.

Pesto’s growth spurt might soon come to an end. Like all King penguins, he’s expected to grow waterproof feathers soon, which will allow him to forage on his own, but comes at the price of slimming down. 

"Average adult king penguin weighs about 11-15kg, so he's expected to slim down a fair bit with the expectation he'll land around 15kg [or 33 pounds]," Michaela Smale, a keeper at the aquarium said.

Pesto’s popularity comes as Moo Deng is also taking the internet by storm, causing the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand to start the process to patent and trademark “Moo Deng the hippo” as an influx of visitors come for the chance to look at the tiny hippo for just five minutes.

Pesto may have not yet toppled Moo Deng from her stardom, but he’s also become an internet sensation. Fan videos featuring Pesto have garnered up to 2.6 million likes on TikTok. Other fans, who post videos affectionately calling Pesto “fatty,” have garnered more than 72,000 likes in less than 24 hours. A senior keeper at the zoo says that “Pesto has reached more than 1.9 billion people across the globe,” per an interview with Australia’s 9 News.

Pesto is  the only King penguin to hatch at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in the past two years.