Most parents want their children to exceed them in life; few get to see it realized so quickly, and literally. If you’re not already acquainted with this Aussie, meet Pesto: a 9-month old penguin who lives at the SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium with his parents Hudson and Tango. While the adult parents weigh roughly 24 pounds each, their little chicklet already weighs just under 50 pounds, and at three feet is also taller than his folks. It makes for quite the family portrait! Pesto’s caregivers at the aquarium say his robust frame — which is the largest they’ve ever seen in a King penguin chick — is likely a gift from his birth father Blake, their oldest and biggest penguin, and due to simple good parenting from Hudson and Tango. A fruitful marriage of nature and nurture, if you will. Of course, his four meals a day of eight or more hand-fed fish are also helping beef up the growing boy…
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.”
I would just like to take a minute to acknowledge that we’re in a global moment of obsessing over a giant baby penguin and a pygmy baby hippo. I don’t know what it means or what it portends, but I love it. So, Pesto has five to seven months left of peak fluffitude before his epic molting begins and he goes from child to MAN. I still say he’s gonna be a hefty adult, a real kingpin King penguin! But after spending REDACTED hours watching videos of this floof online, even I have to admit that his waddle walk looks a tad painful! I love my plump furry friends! I just want Pesto to be comfortable. That being said, I’m totally going to adopt “fledge” when referring to my human physique from now on. “No, I’m not fretting over the extra pounds I’ve put on. I’m still waiting to fledge.” Come on people, let’s start trying to make “fledge” happen (until a mean girl tells us to stop).