Pesto, the nine-month-old king penguin is already bigger than his parents at over 50 pounds (22.5 kilograms). He currently resides in Australia at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium with the rest of his colony. He’s also the biggest king penguin chick that caretakers have ever seen.
To put things into perspective, the average adult king penguin is usually between 30 to 37 pounds.
Pictures of Pesto – who is currently three feet tall – towering over his penguin parents have also amassed millions of views online, making him a social media celebrity.
Since his rise to fame, he has brought hordes of admirers to the Sea Life Melbourne aquarium, where visitors have the chance to learn more about the penguins.
While most people recognize penguins as being black and white, king penguins are actually born with brown feathers. It’s not until they learn to swim as a fledging that they begin to shed those feathers.
Like many birds, penguins are also sexually monomorphic, meaning you can’t distinguish their gender by their physical appearance. To determine their sex, penguin keepers must take a blood sample from their foot and send it to the lab for analysis.
Michaela Smale, a penguin keeper at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, says that they usually announce the sex of a chick with cupcakes. For Pesto, however, he had his own ‘gender reveal video’, in which one of the staff members sliced into a cake to reveal blue filling.
Smale believes Pesto will ‘always be a big boy’, though he may ‘slim down a bit’ once he fledges. However, she noted that he already towers over his dad.
As for why Pesto is so big, penguin keepers at the aquarium believe he hit the genetic lottery, being the biological son of Blake, the biggest and oldest penguin at the facility. His adoptive parents have also done a great job raising him from a chick.
Out of the 60 penguins at Sea Life, several have food-related names, including Lamingtons, Whopper, and Pudding.
Due to his size, Pesto is also a big eater. Every day, he is fed over 30 fishes – that’s double the amount for an average adult king penguin.
And since he’s still a chick, his parents also gives him supplemental food.
Given that, it’s not surprising to know that he produces a lot of waste. According to Smale, he poops nearly every 15 minutes, meaning they are kept busy trying to keep the exhibit clean.
According to penguin keepers at the facility, however, Pesto has already started to lose some of his brown feathers, meaning that adulthood is just around the corner. With that, he is likely to get some swimming lessons from dad soon.
While some king penguins become quite independent during the teenage-phase, Smale hopes that Pesto will keep some of his ‘quirky personality’ so that they can continue to follow his adventures with the rest of the flock.
Earlier this week, award-winning artist Katy Perry also stopped by Sea Life to meet the celebrity penguin, taking the opportunity to promote her new single, I’m His, He’s Mine.
