Meet Pesto the Penguin, a nearly 50-pound baby penguin from Australia who is capturing hearts around the world with his giant fluff
An Australian aquarium is now home to the largest baby penguin it has ever seen. Pesto, a 9-month-old king penguin, weighs just under 50 kilograms – more than the weight of both his parents combined.
Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has been participating in Pesto’s journey since it was hatched on Jan. 30. It didn’t take long for the baby monster to scare the aquarium workers, but he also won their hearts. On April 24, when Pesto was only 3 months old, he weighed 9.1 kilograms, about 20 kilograms. According to the Associated Press, his adoptive parents Hudson and Tango weighed 11 pounds, about 24 pounds, each.
“He’s overshadowing us now, which makes him look ridiculously big,” Melbourne aquarist Jacinta Early told CBS News’ BBC.
Rod McGuirk / AP
In early September, the aquarium said Pesto weighed 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 “amazing weight”.
“First, his biological father, Blake, is our oldest and largest penguin,” the aquarium said on its website. “Secondly, he had wonderful parents who raised him! So, the combination of good genes and good parents explains his current weight, but he will lose most of this when he fledges (developing his old feathers).”
A “craving for healthy food” is also a factor, Early told the BBC. Pesto will eat about 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 fledge when they are 14 to 16 months old. Although male penguins tend to be slightly larger than females, the Australian Antarctic Program says the average penguin size is much smaller than Pesto’s current size, with a maximum weight of between 10 and 15 kg – 22 to 33 pounds – during mating season.
“If I let him down, my whole finger would die [disappear] deep in his feathers,” Early said. “When he starts to molt, he’s going to lose a lot of that baby weight, and he’s going to lose a lot of that weight, so he’s going to be nice and smooth.”
Aquarium keepers told the Associated Press that they expect him to end up weighing about 33 pounds after losing “that really nice baby fluff.”
Videos posted by the Pesto aquarium have taken the internet by storm.
Even Katy Perry has joined in on the Pesto love affair. In one TikTok that has amassed more than 4 million views, aquarium workers can be seen dancing with Pesto to one of Perry’s songs. Perry responded, saying he would “go over and get a blessing” ahead of his expected appearance in the Australian Football League grand final.
“Our chonky king is active,” the aquarium said in one video of the giant baby penguin walking behind the adult birds in the enclosure – with a strut that can only be described as a seemingly awkward waddle.
The Associated Press says Pesto was the only king penguin to hatch at the aquarium so far this year and the first since 2022. That year, there were only six cubs.
