Meet Pesto, the viral humongous penguin chick

(WJW) – Pesto the penguin is stealing the hearts of people all over the world. Why? Because he’s huge and fluffy!

The popular king penguin is only 9 months old and weighs 46 pounds. He went viral after his gender-reveal party was posted to social media .

A resident of Sea Life Melbourne in Australia, Pesto now holds the record as the largest chick the marine exhibit has ever seen.

According to the Sea Life Melbourne website , Pesto’s size is due to a number of factors, including his appetite for eating 25 fish a day.

“Pesto’s impressive weight is due to a number of factors. Firstly, his biological dad, Blake, is our biggest and oldest penguin,” the website says. “Secondly, he’s had amazing parents raising him!  So, the combination of good genes and good parents explains his current weight, but he will lose a lot of this when he fledges (develops his adult feathers.)”

During his gender reveal party, the video released by Sea Life Melbourne shows senior keeper Michaela Smale shoveling a pile of snow to reveal blue, for a boy.

Pesto’s parents Hudson and Tango attended the party, as well as the others in the marine exhibit’s king penguin colony. Humans who attended the party enjoyed a penguin-themed cake with blue icing inside.

The video , which was posted to the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium TikTok account has gotten more than 800,000 views and more than 105,000 likes.

TikTok users have fallen in love with Pesto with comments including, “Not to be dramatic, but I think a hug from Pesto would save us all,” and “Please tell Pesto I love him so much and he’s perfect.”

According to Sea Life Melbourne , Pesto’s gender was unknown until this month because king penguins are non-sexually dimorphic, meaning they do not display externally visible sex traits.

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