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Massive Baby Penguin Towers Over Adults At Just 6 Months Old

A very large baby penguin standing between two smaller adults.

They say kids grow up fast, but this is ridiculous! A baby king penguin named Pesto has astonished zookeepers at the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium with his massive size. At only six months old, this adorable critter is already significantly larger than the adult penguins in his enclosure. In fact, his caretakers say that Pesto is the aquarium’s largest baby penguin on record. Right now, he weighs in at 20 kilograms — that’s over 40 pounds!

Videos by InspireMore

One visitor at the aquarium caught the cutest footage of baby Pesto hanging out with the other penguins. Although he still looks like a child based on his fuzzy coat, he’s both taller and wider than his adult counterparts. This impressive video has received over a million views online!

Commenters were pretty surprised by Pesto’s immense size.

“That’s clearly three baby penguins in a fluffy trench coat,” joked one user.

Another said, “I wanna know how big the egg was.”

According to a video on Sea Life Melbourne’s Instagram account, baby Pesto has to eat twice as much as a grown-up penguin. This amounts to about 25 fish per day! In a few months, this big guy will likely grow into his adult feathers. He’ll still be pretty large, but losing his fuzzy coat will probably make him look less bulky.

Baby Pesto has been raised by a pair of foster parents at the aquarium: two adult penguins named Tango and Hudson. Although everyone is referring to the animal as a “he,” zookeepers actually don’t know if he’s a boy or a girl. However, based on his massive size, they’re guessing he’s a male.

A very large baby penguin standing between two smaller adults.
Screengrab from TikTok

We’re wishing all the best to this precious baby penguin as he grows into an adult. Do you think he’ll get any bigger?

You can find the source of this story’s featured image here.

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