MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A huge king penguin chick named Pesto, who weighs as much as both his parents combined, has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at an Australian aquarium.
Weighing 22 kilograms (49 pounds) at 9 months old, Pesto is the heaviest penguin chick the Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium has ever had, its education supervisor Jacinta Early said on Friday.
By contrast, his doting parents, Hudson and Tango weigh 11 kilograms (24 pounds) each.
Pesto’s global fame has grown with his size. More than 1.9 billion people around the world had viewed him through social media, an aquarium statement said.
He ate more than his own substantial body weight in fish in the past week: 24 kilograms (53 pounds), Early said.
The veterinary advice is that that quantity of food is healthy for a chick approaching adulthood.
His growth will plateau as he enters his fledging period. He has started to lose his brown feathers and will replace them with the black and white plumage of a young adult.
His keepers expect him to trim down to around 15 kilograms (33 pounds) in the 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.
But she expects Pesto will remain recognizable as the sought-after TikTok celebrity he has become for another two weeks.
For now, he's a star attraction.
“Such a small head for such a big body,” one admirer remarked on Friday as a crowd gathered against the glass of the penguin enclosure at feeding time.
Hatching on Jan. 31, Pesto was the only king penguin chick to hatch at the aquarium this year and the first since 2022, a year when there were six. The reason why there was none last year isn’t clear.
Adult king penguins weigh between 9.5 kilograms (21 pounds) and 18 kilograms (40 pounds), according to the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, a global environmental group.
They are the world’s econd largest penguin species, after the emperor penguin.
Pesto, right, a huge king penguin chick who weighs as much as both his parents combined, mingles in his enclosure at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, and has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at the aquarium. (AP Photo/Rod McGuirk)
In this photograph provided by SEA LIFE Melbourne, Pesto, a huge king penguin chick who weighs as much as both his parents combined, mingles in his enclosure at Australia's Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, Sept. 3, 2024, and has become a social media celebrity and a star attraction at the aquarium. (SEA LIFE Melbourne via AP)
DUESSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Florian Wirtz is only 21 and he's already one of the most experienced players in a new-look Germany team.
As Germany switches focus to the 2026 World Cup, injuries, retirements and a short-term focus on Euro 2024 have left it with a Nations League squad that lacks international experience but isn't especially young either.
Wirtz, the star attacking midfielder from Bayer Leverkusen, is the second youngest player in the squad but also the fifth most experienced player on 25 caps, as Germany prepares to play Bosnia-Herzegovina on Friday and the Netherlands on Monday.
None of the three goalkeepers in the squad — Oliver Baumann, Alexander Nübel and Oliver Blaswich — have ever played for Germany. With Barcelona's Marc-André ter Stegen injured for months to come, one of them will have to step up.
Six of coach Julian Nagelsmann’s preferred players were unavailable with injuries as of Tuesday; Leipzig left back David Raum the latest to drop out. New faces such as Jamie Leweling, Jonny Burkardt and Tim Kleindienst are Bundesliga regulars but untested at international level.
“Though it's a shame that this time we have to do without some injured regulars who contributed through the home Euros in the summer, we're very much looking forward to seeing our new players in the team environment and in training,” coach Julian Nagelsmann said on Monday in remarks reported by dpa.
Even before Bayern's Jamal Musiala, Arsenal's Kai Havertz and West Ham's Niclas Füllkrug all dropped out injured, Germany's squad was looking threadbare after a spate of high-profile retirements following the run to the quarterfinals at Euro 2024.
Toni Kroos, Manuel Neuer, Ilkay Gündogan and Thomas Müller called time on Germany after Euro 2024, taking a combined 451 caps' worth of experience with them.
There's a wider effect, too, from the pressure Germany felt to succeed when it hosted Euro 2024.
Short-term thinking was Germany's official policy when Nagelsmann was appointed last year on a contract that ran only through to Euro 2024, and he focused on getting a misfiring group of experienced players to gel again. Nagelsmann later extended his stay through to the 2026 World Cup.
Germany can usually count on Musiala and Wirtz, two of the brightest young talents in world soccer, but other young players once hyped as Germany's future have yet to break through.
Borussia Dortmund's Karim Adeyemi has lacked consistency and had injury problems. Striker Youssoufa Moukoko and defender Armel Bella-Kotchap were Adeyemi's teammates at the 2022 World Cup but haven't been selected since. Progress seems to have stalled for 21-year-old forward Maximilian Beier since he joined Dortmund this season, too.
One player who'll be expected to perform against Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Netherlands is Bayern forward Serge Gnabry, back in the team after 11 months away.
In a sign of how much things have changed, Gnabry's 22 international goals mean he's scored more for Germany than everyone else in the squad put together.
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
Leverkusen's Florian Wirtz watches during a training session ahead of the Champions League opening phase soccer match between Bayer Leverkusen and AC Milan in Leverkusen, Monday, Sept. 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Meissner)
