Meet Pesto, the largest baby penguin this Australian aquarium has ever seen

Caregivers arrived at the end of January Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in Australia were ecstatic when a king penguin The chick successfully came out of its shell. The baby, who they named Pesto, was the only king penguin born at the aquarium in the past two years. He weighed less than a pound.

Since then, they’ve watched the cub grow – and continue to grow. According to the aquarium, Pesto weighs a whopping 51.8 pounds as of Wednesday.

If Pesto has grown, just like his fan base. The enormous black and white bird has become something of a social media darling, building an impressive online following that could rival that of Moo Deng (a now famous baby hippopotamus born in Thailand).

Pesto has been on display at the aquarium since April NPR‘s Rachel Treisman. But it wasn’t until the facility hosted a gender reveal party for him earlier this month that his stardom really took off. (People cannot distinguish between men and women just by looking at them – they have to take blood samples.) Since then, his celebrity has skyrocketed.

“We have seen an increase in social traffic, web traffic and of course visitors,” said Michaela Smale, senior keeper at the aquarium. 9News“Madison Leach. “People no longer just come to Melbourne for the shows, music and coffee. They come to visit Pesto.’

But why is Pesto literally so big?

Caregivers attribute his unusual size to a ‘hearty appetite’ – he eats more than 25 fish a day – and good genes. His biological father, a king penguin named Blake, is one of the largest and oldest penguins in the facility, weighing about 39 pounds per year. New Atlas“Bronwyn Thompson.

However, Pesto is being raised by a younger couple, Tango and Hudson, who, according to the aquarium, are taking good care of him. For reference, they both weigh about 24 pounds. As Jacinta Early, the aquarium’s educational supervisor, explains BBC NewsTiffanie Turnbull, Pesto ‘overshadows’ the pair, ‘which also makes him look comically large.’

At this point, Pesto is still covered in fluffy brown fuzz. But in the coming months, his baby feathers will be replaced with black, white and orange plumage.

“He’s going to lose that really cute baby fluff,” Early tells the Associated press“Rod McGuirk. “It can take one to two months before he really gets rid of it. Then it is nice and sleek and streamlined.”

He may also lose some weight around the same time. As he gets older, he’ll likely get closer to 33 pounds, per NPR. Yet Pesto will probably always remain a ‘big boy’, says Smale CNN‘s Lilit Marcus.

“He’s already considerably bigger than his father,” she adds.

King penguins typically weigh between 31 and 37 pounds and are between 33 and 37 inches tall. They are larger than most other penguin species, but they are not the largest. That title goes to the emperor penguinwhich can weigh up to 100 pounds and be 20 inches long.

In the wild, king penguins live on Antarctic and subantarctic islands, including the South Sandwich and Falkland Islands. There are between one and two million breeding pairs around the world – and according to the International Union for the Conservation of Naturetheir numbers are increasing. They are considered a type of ‘least concern’.

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