The internet is obsessed with a giant baby penguin named Pesto

There's a new animal that the internet has fallen in love with, and it's a huge baby penguin named Pesto.

He's the heaviest penguin chick the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has ever had, weighing in at a whopping 22 kilograms (49 pounds) at 9 months old, born earlier this year on January 31.

To put this in perspective, Pesto's parents Hudson and Tango each weigh 11 kilograms (24 pounds) and the average Adult king penguins weigh between 9.5kg and 18kg, as per the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.

Given his size, it's no surprise that Pesto has a big appetite as he ate 24kg of fish in the past week alone - that's more than his own body weight, according to the aquarium's education supervisor Jacinta Early.

(But not to worry, this amount is healthy for a growing penguin chick becoming an adult, as per veterinary advice).

Pesto has since become a social media star with videos of him reaching over 1.9 billion people globally, as viewers are shocked at the size of the bird despite his young age.

However, once Pesto moves into his fledging period then his rapid growth will slow and is currently losing his fluffy feathers where black and white feather will then grow in place and is expected to lose 15kg in this process.

“He’s going to start losing that really adorable baby fluff. It might take him one to two months to really get rid of it. Then he’ll be nice and sleek and streamlined,” Early said.

So if you want to see Pesto in all of his fluffiness, then you have around two weeks left before the new feathers will begin to emerge.

Of course, Pesto has been shown a lot of love online - here are some of the best comments:

Elsewhere, it's not just Pesto who has gained the internet's attention as a baby hippo called Moo Deng has also become the source of viral admiration too.

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