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Amid the soaring popularity of Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo at a Thailand zoo, the internet found its new viral sensation in a ‘fluffy’ baby penguin at the Sea Life Aquarium in Melbourne, Australia. Pesto, the nine-month-old King penguin, is all things cute and weighs more than its parents.
Fondly called ‘fatty’ and ‘linebacker’, Pesto is attracting tourists from around the globe to the aquarium like never before. According to a statement released by the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, as mentioned by Fox News, the baby penguin is the heaviest chick weighing a whopping 49 pounds while its parents Hudson and Tango are only 24 pounds each.
“He has brought immense joy to everyone here at Sea Life Melbourne and to penguin fans around the world. We look forward to sharing his future adventure – which will include fledging and then swimming lessons,” Claire Burrell, general manager of Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, told Fox News.
Born in January this year, Pesto’s diet includes eight fish four times a day, which is over 30 fish a day, CNN reported.
In a video shared by the official Instagram handle of Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, Pesto can be seen playfully walking his way through the glass plane and hanging around with his fellow penguins.
Watch here:
Pesto’s fans swamped the comment section. Reacting to the video, a user wrote, “Pesto is zesto. Too cute. I want to squeeze him all-day.” Another user commented, “Pesto: A name so nice, even the penguins are using it.”
“We visited today and he is absolutely adorable. I just wanted to know how long through the day is he sectioned off from the others? It would be so nice if it were one way glass also for them,” another fan wrote.
According to SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment, a website committed to sea creatures, King penguins have the longest breeding cycle of all the penguin species, lasting 14 to 16 months. The species grows feathers within a few weeks of hatching.
