EXPLAINER

Nearly two billion people have viewed footage of an unusually large baby king penguin in Australia.

A baby penguin named Pesto, who at nine months old weighs 22.5kg (50 pounds) and towers over the adults at 90cm (roughly three feet) tall, has caught the eye of animal lovers around the world.

Pesto, who lives at the Sea Life Melbourne aquarium in Australia, is a king penguin (Aptenodytes patagonicus), the second largest type of penguin in the world, but he is big even for this species – taller even than his caregiver parents, Tango and Hudson.

Most king penguins grow from 70cm to 100cm tall and weigh between 14kg and 16kg (31–35 pounds) as adults.

Michaela Smale, a senior keeper at the aquarium told local broadcaster 9News that images and videos of the penguin had gone viral on social media. “Pesto has reached more than 1.9 billion people across the globe, so he really is a drawcard for visitation to Victoria,” she said.

@sealifemelbourneaquarium

pesto #pestothepenguin kingpesto sealifemelb

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Why is Pesto so big?

Pesto was born at the aquarium in January this year weighing just 200g (7oz). When he was just three months old, Pesto already weighed 9.1kg (20 pounds). At nine months, he has grown to 100 times his birth weight and is the largest chick to have lived in the aquarium.

A statement from Sea Life Melbourne aquarium said: “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].”

Pesto’s impressive size and stature can be attributed to his biological father, Blake, who is also one of the largest and oldest penguins at the aquarium.

Pesto eats about 25 fish a day, a requirement for a penguin of his size, the aquarium said.

Pesto is the only king penguin chick to be hatched at the aquarium so far this year.

Eventually, he will shed his fluffy feathers (moulting), at about the age of 10 to 13 months, and will slim down considerably to about 15kg (33 lbs) once he’s a fully grown adult.

Watch out Pesto, here comes Moo Deng

Pesto isn’t the only baby animal catching attention. Moo Deng, a two-month-old female pygmy hippopotamus housed at Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand, is getting a lot of social media love, too.

Moo Deng already has a 24/7 livestream, where you can watch her all day. Her alias, “bouncy pork”, was chosen from a poll on the zoo’s Facebook page. Roughly 20,000 people voted to give Moo Deng the distinctive moniker.

Moo deng is never dry or calm😭 pic.twitter.com/EgUpj64Ad3

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Moo Deng was introduced to the world on July 25, aged two weeks, by the zoo and the baby hippo’s stardom has only grown since then.

Moo Deng came to fame when a video of her was posted on social media by Atthapon Nundee, the 31-year-old zookeeper at Khao Kheow Open Zoo.

Atthapon told Thai newspaper The Nation: “I started making videos just for fun. Tourists would walk by when they saw her sleeping, but I spent the whole day with her, observing her behaviours like walking, running and playing. So, I recorded videos when she was being adorable.

“Now, it has turned into another job to make videos, but my main job is still taking care of the animals. When I have free time, I post clips. I post a lot because people send me a lot of clips.”