Viral Sensation Pesto the Penguin Shows Off New Look

Published: November 13, 2024

Viral Sensation Pesto the Penguin Shows Off New Look

By Movieguide® Contributor

Viral sensation Pesto the penguin is showing off a new look these days as he starts molting his baby feathers.

The King Penguin chick lives at the SEA Life Melbourne Aquarium and quickly became an internet favorite for his size.

“Pesto’s molt is expected this time of year,” said Jacinta Early, Education Supervisor with SEA LIFE Melbourne Aquarium to Fox News. “King penguin chicks molt just in time to learn how to swim for the summer! It’s always fun to see the progression as it slightly changes depending on the individual.”

Early continued, “Pesto has had a sweet wizard cloak, a bald patch, a feather boa style and the last I saw it looked like a full body Mohawk. I like to call it their awkward teen phase while they’re trying to figure out who they are as they approach adulthood.”

A post on the SEA Life website explains to Pesto’s fans that he will “continue to fledge over the next few weeks,” adding, “Don’t worry he’ll still be just as adorable, he’ll just be rocking his new tuxedo!”

Pesto isn’t the only adorable animal that has taken the internet by storm recently. Moo Deng, a baby pygmy hippo at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, has become an internet star, even appearing on SNL (played by cast member Bowen Yang).

“The zoo saw a spike in visitors since Moo Deng’s fame — so much that the zoo now has to limit public access to the baby’s enclosure to 5-minute windows throughout the day during weekends,” AP News wrote.

Zoo director Narongwit Chodchoi added that the zoo has been receiving “over 4,000 visitors during a weekday, up from around just 800 people, and more than 10,000 during a weekend, up from around 3,000 people.”