Meet Pesto: Baby Penguin, Internet Superstar, And An Absolute Unit

While it’s always an exciting day in the IFLScience team when we stumble across the latest baby animal taking the internet by storm, it seemed as though nothing could match our obsession with Moo Deng – then came along Pesto, the most delightfully chonky baby penguin we’ve ever seen.

If you’re not already familiar, Pesto is a king penguin chick resident at SEA LIFE Melbourne in Australia. When he hatched back in late January, he weighed only 200 grams (7 ounces), penguin keeper Michaela Smale told ABC News .

“Nine months on, he is 22 and a half kilograms [49.6 pounds],” said Smale. "His parents, Tango and Hudson, weigh between 11kg and 12kg [24.3 to 26.5 pounds], so he is almost double their size." We weren’t kidding when we said he was a hefty lad.

While king penguins are the second-largest penguin species, Pesto’s size is at the very least unique to this particular colony ; according to a statement sent to IFLScience by SEA LIFE Melbourne, he’s the biggest chick that the aquarium has ever seen.

His size has granted him global internet superstardom – videos of Pesto on TikTok have likes in the hundreds of thousands, and views in the millions. In the comments can be found legions of those expressing their love for the big baby, even if a few of them have compared him to a giant kiwi, an overripe avocado, and three penguin chicks in a fluffy coat.

In amongst the amusing comparisons, however, one question that has frequently popped up: why is Pesto the absolute unit that he is?

One reason is his appetite, managing to tuck into 25 fish a day over four feeding times – though that’s not necessarily unusual considering that in the wild, king penguin chicks rely on their fat stores in order to survive through their first winter, so it’s important that they pack on the pounds early on.

The aquarium has attributed his impressive bod to a “combination of good genes and good parents.”

“Firstly, his biological dad, Blake, is our biggest and oldest penguin,” reads the section of the aquarium’s site dedicated to Pesto (quite appropriately titled “Pesto is the bestO”). “Secondly, he's had amazing parents raising him!”

But if you’re hoping to catch an in-person glimpse of the big brown pompom in all his fluffy glory, time’s ticking; at nine months old, it won’t be too much longer until Pesto fledges, at which point he’ll be a pompom no more.

As penguin keeper Jacinta Early explained to ABC News, "Once those baby feathers come off, he'll shrink like a balloon and be slender and beautiful and ready to take his first steps in the pool."

Don’t worry Pesto, we’ll still love you regardless.