Huge Penguin Chick Becomes Social Media Star
A huge king penguin chick named Pesto has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at an Australian aquarium.
Weighing 22 kilograms at 9 months old, Pesto is the heaviest penguin chick the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has ever had.
He's being looked after by two "foster parents," named Hudson and Tango, who weigh just 11 kilograms each.
As Pesto has grown, so has his global fame — social media users have enjoyed watching videos of the big penguin waddling around at the aquarium.
The aquarium's owners said that billions of people have seen Pesto online through the aquarium's website and social media pages.
Staff said it was "quite unusual" to have such a large penguin chick, but they said Pesto will lose weight as he gets older and starts to swim.
The brown feathers he has now will be replaced by black and white feathers as he grows into a young adult.
Pesto's weight may fall to about 15 kilograms during this time, the aquarium's staff said.
The reason he's so big, they said, is because his biological father — Blake — is the largest and oldest penguin at the aquarium.
His foster parents are younger penguins that staff wanted to try out as parents.
Pesto also eats a lot of fish — between 25 and 32 per day! That's double the amount that an adult king penguin usually eats.
But experts say he's healthy and they're not worried about his size.
King penguins are the second largest species of penguin, after the emperor penguin. They usually live on islands in the Southern Ocean.
