Meet Pesto the Penguin, Australia's nearly 50-pound baby penguin capturing hearts worldwide with its hefty fluff
An aquarium in Australia is now home to the biggest baby penguin it has ever seen. Pesto, a 9-month-old king penguin, has weighed in at just under 50 pounds — more than the weight of both his parents combined.
Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has been sharing Pesto's journey since he hatched on Jan. 30. It didn't take long for the fluffy baby animal to shock aquarium employees, but also win over their hearts. By April 24, when Pesto was just 3 months old, he already weighed 9.1 kilograms, about 20 pounds. According to the Associated Press, his foster parents Hudson and Tango weigh 11 kg, about 24 pounds, each.
"He eclipses them now, which also makes him look comically large," Melbourne aquarist Jacinta Early told CBS News' partner BBC.
By early September, the aquarium said Pesto weighed in at just over 46 pounds, and by the end of the month, the AP said Pesto had reached 49 pounds.
The aquarium says on its website that many factors contribute to Pesto's "impressive weight."
"Firstly, his biological dad, Blake, is our biggest and oldest penguin," the aquarium says on its website. "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)."
His "very healthy appetite" is also a factor, Early told the BBC. Pesto will eat up to 30 fish that are hand-fed to him every day.
King penguins are the second-largest penguin species in the world, according to the American Bird Conservancy, and will typically fledge when they're 14 to 16 months old. While male penguins are usually slightly larger than females, the Australian Antarctic Program says that the average penguin size is far below Pesto's current size, with peak weights ranging between 10 and 15 kg — 22 to 33 pounds — during courting periods.
"If I poked him, my entire finger would completely [disappear] deep in his feathers," Early said. "When he does start to fledge, he'll lose a lot of that baby fluff, and he'll also lose much of that weight, so he'll slim down nice and sleek."
Keepers at the aquarium told the Associated Press they expect him to end up at around 33 pounds after he loses "that really adorable baby fluff."
Videos the aquarium has posted of Pesto have taken the internet by storm.
Even Katy Perry has joined in on the love for Pesto. In one TikTok that's racked up more than 4 million views, aquarium staff members are seen dancing with Pesto to one of Perry's songs. Perry responded, saying she "will come by and get a blessing" before her expected performance at the Australian Football League's grand final.
"Our chonky King workin' it," the aquarium says in another video of the massive baby penguin walking behind one of the adult birds in the enclosure — with a strut that can only be described as a seemingly difficult waddle.
The Associated Press says that Pesto has been the only king penguin to hatch at the aquarium so far this year and the first since 2022. That year, there were just six hatchlings.