One of the more wholesome TikTok trends of 2024 saw the adorable and supersized Pesto the Penguin burst into our lives and hearts.
The king penguin was born a normal, healthy chick at Sea Life Melbourne but he simply didn’t stop growing.
By six months old, he dwarfed both of his parents, Hudson and Tango, and at nine months old he weighed over 20kg – more than both his parents combined.
Since being unveiled to the public in April, Pesto has amassed more than 1.9 billion followers on TikTok, where he is so popular that if you type “pesto” into the app’s search bar, the first result is the penguin rather than the sauce.
The hippo’s antics earnt her instant adoration online.
Pesto and Moo Deng are certainly not the first animals to become social media stars.
Who could forget Doug the Pug (the most followed pug on the internet) or Grumpy Cat (the perpetually frowning dwarf moggy)?
But those animals were domesticated pets. Pesto and Moo Deng are wild, albeit caged, animals.
Both Khao Kheow and Sea Life Melbourne have reported an increase in people coming to see the animals as a direct result of their internet fame.
“We have seen an increase in social traffic, web traffic and of course footfall,” Michaela Smale, senior keeper at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium, told 9news.com.au in September.
“People are no longer coming to Melbourne just for the shows, music and coffee, they’re coming to see Pesto.”
Moo Deng’s popularity meant the zoo was forced to limit visitors to five-minute viewings and erect signs asking them not to throw things at her.
Social media users have expressed concern about the hippo being mistreated or provoked into behaviours likely to draw online attention.
Animal rights group PETA has been outspoken about Moo Deng’s quality of life and called on zoos to prioritise conservation efforts that protect animals in nature.
The zoo insists the baby hippo receives the best possible care.
Conservation scientist Professor James Watson from the University of Queensland told 9news.com.au that zoos play an important role in exposing people, particularly children, to wildlife but that attempts to anthropomorphise (attribute human characteristics or behaviours) wild animals for entertainment may be a step too far.
“Any caged animal, wild animal, is in an environment it doesn’t really want to be,” Watson said.
“I can see an argument where there is a conservation benefit and a wildlife benefit but it has to be taken in context.”
A conundrum of conservation, he said, was calculating the cost-benefit of sustaining wildlife biodiversity, ensuring species survival and population control, with the quality of life of the individual animals.
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Zoos put a spotlight on this conflict between the animal welfare movement and the conservation movement, he said.
“The science is pretty clear-cut in that people commit to nature conservation when they love it, when they actually experience it and feel joy around it.
“Zoos, over time, have played a really important role in doing that.”
But he cautioned that the availability of incredible video footage and photography meant zoos were no longer the only way to expose people to wild animals and we should feel within our rights to question zookeepers about their reasons for caging the animal.
“If it is simply for entertainment, people can make up their own minds whether it’s cruel or not.”
