Pesto is the biggest penguin the Melbourne aquarium has ever had | ABC News

A curious and bold bird with what seems like a bottomless appetite. Pesto gets fed approximately four times a day. Each feed is about eight fish. He's often first to greet us in the morning and come wandering over chirping at us for some breakfast. When Pesto hatched nine months ago he weighed 200 grams. Now he's 22 and a half kilograms. And with his 12 kilogram dad in front, Junior clearly dwarfs him and every other bird here. He's almost double their size. He's definitely on the upper percentile in terms of king penguin chicks. King penguin chicks need to stack on weight early to survive sub-zero temperatures and are not yet waterproof. But Pesto is especially large because of genetics. He definitely comes from a family of big babies. And Pesto's eye-catching girth has also seen videos of him rack up millions of views online. Plus a flurry of visitors locally, internationally and of all ages. They like them fluffy. He's adorable. He's so sweet. We've come to see the fluffy thing. The penguins seem unaware of the fuss but the aquarium is warning visitors to be careful. If we do have people banging on the acrylic, using flash photography or trying to make a penguin follow their finger, that's really not wanted behavior as that can stress them out. There are about 60 penguins in this exhibition right now but Pesto is the only chick. So he's not only super famous outside, he's very important in here. So in many ways it's his kingdom for now. It is nesting and breeding season so hopefully more chicks will hatch in Melbourne. And in a few months Pesto himself will get a summer body. Pesto is healthy. We're not concerned about his weight at all. He is a chunky monkey but once those baby feathers come off he'll shrink like a balloon and he will be slender and beautiful and ready to take his first dip in the pool. Or perhaps a giant splash. Iskander Razak, ABC News, Melbourne.