Pesto — the absolutely ginormous baby penguin at the SEA LIFE Aquarium — went viral earlier this year for breaking the aquarium records for being the biggest chick the Melbourne Aquarium has ever seen. And now, after nine months of nurture, love and surprising online fame, we finally know the gender of the fluffy little hatchling. Pesto is a bustling baby boy!!!
Although nine months old seems pretty old for a gender reveal, it’s actually standard practice for king penguins.
According to senior keeper Michaela Smale, king penguins are non-sexually dimorphic which means that they do not have externally visible traits to easily distinguish the sex. So, the team at SEA LIFE Melbourne thought it could be a good opportunity to celebrate the large-and-in-charge viral star with a cheeky gender reveal.
“Just by looking at a king penguin, we can’t actually determine the gender so we need to send away a tiny sample of blood to determine the gender of our penguin,” Michaela said.
“That was done a couple of weeks ago and it’s finally come back to us to say he’s a boy.”
While Pesto would be a hit regardless of his gender, it’s great news for the aquarium, and the future of the colony, after the last batch of hatchlings were all revealed to be female. Although that might sound like an ideal world, for the sake of procreation, you’ve gotta chuck some blokes in there!
Michaela has looked after Pesto since he hatched so she got to do the honours in true icy style — by digging into a pile of snow to reveal a heap of blue ice. Once the reveal was made, Pesto’s parents Hudson and Tango, along with the rest of the king penguin colony were let into the penguin creche to celebrate!!! Like a fkn live-action version of Happy Feet but without the devastating “we’re ruining the earth” subtext!!!!!!!
It was equally as joyous for the staff who indulged in a gender-reveal penguin cake that looked delicious.
Just in case Pesto hasn’t made his way onto your FYP or into your heart, let me introduce you.
Pesto was born back in February to parents Hudson and Tango. But the keepers very quickly noticed that he was a special dude after he started growing like crazy. At six months old, he was already significantly bigger than both his parents. By nine months, he was weighing in at 21kg — 11kg heavier than his parents — and maintains a protein-heavy diet of 25 fish a day.
According to Michaela, Pesto’s enormous size hasn’t stopped his parents from doting on him.
“Pesto’s parents Hudson and Tango are seasoned professionals when it comes to raising king penguin chicks,” she says.
“They’re really good at taking turns and putting lots of focus and attention onto baby Pesto.”
Fluffy giant Pesto is about to enter a very exciting time in his life as he becomes a fledgling, loses his fluffy feathers and begins swimming lessons.
They grow up so fast, don’t they?
If you want to visit Pesto IRL, you can do so at SEA LIFE Melbourne or even book a Penguin Passport experience where you can get up close and personal with the penguins. Pretty cool!!!!!!
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