Fat Baby Penguin and Viral Superstar

Among a group of sleek black-and-white penguins living at a popular Australian aquarium, one baby penguin stands out.

Chocolate-colored and fluffy, Pest is a head taller than his foster parents and weighs more than his parents combined.

Affectionately known as “Fatty,” “The Absolute” and “Linebacker,” the chubby woman has risen to internet superstardom and attracted legions of devoted fans, including pop star Katy Perry.

The plague has reached an audience of billions, dominated social media algorithms, been featured on morning television in the US and UK, and attracted tourists from around the world to Melbourne’s Sea Life aquarium.

Born in January, the 9-month-old king penguin weighed just 200 grams (7 ounces), but now he’s more than 100 times that size. At a whopping 22.5 kilograms (50 pounds), he’s the largest baby penguin the aquarium has ever seen.

Jacinta Early from the aquarium told the BBC that it was normal for penguins to give birth to “healthy baby penguins” after hatching, but keepers had not expected the outbreak to become so large.

“It’s really a combination of nature and nurture,” the marine biologist explains.

Although Pest’s biological father is quite tall, he has been well cared for by his foster parents Tango and Hudson. “Pest is now taller than his parents and looks ridiculously big.”

Early said Pest is hand-fed multiple times a day and that his large body weight is in part down to his “very healthy appetite,” which is a gentle way of saying Pest devours up to 30 fish a day.

But she stresses that her son is healthy, basically semi-fluffy, and will soon start losing weight naturally.

“If I poked him, my finger would completely (disappear) into the feathers,” Early said.

“Once the young birds start to fledge, they lose a lot of their fur and lose a lot of weight, so they become very slim and sleek.”

Though the baby is already slowly shedding its feathers, she says there’s a lot more to love about Pest than its adorable looks.

She describes him as a social butterfly who loves to chatter in “cute whistling sounds” and annoy adult penguins “like a normal toddler.”

“He’s the first to greet (the zookeepers) and responds when you call him by name.”

“We do have our favourites,” Early says diplomatically, “but Pest seems to have a bit of a crush on all of us.”

Zookeepers have been enamored with the chick for a long time, but it’s been magical to see the love it has garnered from the public, she said.

It’s the school holidays, normally a busy time for the aquarium, but visitors have been flocking to the penguin exhibit to catch a glimpse of the colourful pom-poms.

“(You’ll) hear guests you’ve never met before say, ‘Hey, where’s the pesto?’

“It feels really strange to hear people call our penguins by their real names because they’re not commonly known.”

Olivia Wilson, who has been managing Pest’s demanding media schedule for the aquarium, jokes that she’s not sure whether the big attraction in Melbourne this weekend will be Pest or the Australian Football League final, a sporting event taken so seriously that the whole state of Victoria celebrates the day before.

“His name is mentioned in the media in every country. There are few countries in the world where the plague is not well liked.”

By her measurements, Plague has attracted an audience of about 5 billion, likely dethroning Thailand’s adorable and quirky baby pygmy hippopotamus as the internet’s most popular animal.

“People are trading his money as Bitcoin. It’s unbelievable,” Wilson said.

“Basically, move Mu Deng out of the way.”