Move over Moo Deng, Pesto the Penguin is the new kid in town captivating the internet and capturing our hearts.
Hot on the heels of the playful, pudgy, pygmy hippo who became a viral meme from her home in a Thailand zoo, a nine-month-old king penguin chick has shot to fame for his 22.5kg (50lb) build, roughly the weight of a check-in suitcase.
Chocolate brown and luxuriously fluffy, Pesto stands out like a sore thumb in Melbourne’s Sea Life Aquarium, surrounded by glossy black and white penguins that almost need to crane their necks to see him.
Affectionately dubbed ‘an absolute unit’, adorable Pesto is already heavier than his foster parents Tango and Hudson combined, with the duo tipping the scales at just 11kg each.
And with a healthy diet of up to 25 fish a day, this penguin’s rotund frame will only continue to grow, senior penguin keeper Emily Thornton confirmed.
The chonky chick has already attracted a legion of fans — securing breakfast TV coverage across the UK and Australia, and starring in viral social media videos viewed by nearly two billion people.
He has a celebrity admirer in the form of pop superstar Katy Perry, who’s even stopped off to visit him while Down Under to perform at the AFL Grand Final.
But despite his virality and the human faces pressed constantly against Pesto’s enclosure, he remains fairly ‘humble’ about his newfound fame, keeper Thornton insisted.
And, because he is so ‘food orientated’, just keeping him still on the scales to check his weight can be challenging.
He is already the largest penguin the aquarium has ever seen.
One TikTok video posted by the aquarium showing two employees performing a dance routine behind an impassive Pesto has racked up four million views.
His coat is mostly ‘dense’ feathers, Thornton said, which penguin chicks require to keep warm against freezing Antarctic temperatures.
Pesto’s size is also an advantage because smaller chicks are at risk of being eaten by predatory birds in the wild.
Genetics play a part — his ancestors were some of the biggest and oldest penguins the aquarium has housed.
‘He is really healthy,’ Thornton said, adding that ‘chicks can get bigger than him’ in the wild.
Despite his fish diet, his feathers smell like corn chips, she added.
Pesto will soon shed his fluffy down as he develops his adult feathers, giving him a burst of yellow on his head and cheeks and a black-and-white tuxedo.
‘That process is energy draining and his appetite will reduce a lot,’ Thornton said.
King penguins are found in Antarctica and their population remains fairly stable, with about 1.6 million breeding pairs.
Thornton said climate change has badly affected the habitats of some penguin species but has not yet hit the king penguins’ domain.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, king penguin populations were almost wiped out because they were heavily hunted for their meat, oil and blubber.
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