There have been posts and pictures of two baby animals all over Instagram and TikTok these past few weeks: one is a baby hippo and the other is an unusually large penguin chick.

Meet Moo Deng and Pesto.

Moo Deng is a baby pygmy hippopotamus hailing from Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Thailand. She’s only three months old and she’s already amassed millions of fans due to her adorable appearance. Moo Deng translates to “bouncy pig” in Thai, which matches her energetic personality. Since her birth, visitation to the zoo has more than doubled, and along with them came some visitors who would harass Moo Deng in order to get her attention. As a result, the zoo has put up cameras around her enclosure and has threatened legal action against those who have disrupted the baby. The actions of these tourists have been very widely condemned online. When she’s not eating or sleeping, she enjoys playing with her mother and kind guests.

Pesto is also a baby zoo animal, but he’s no ordinary penguin chick. He’s already the size of an adult king penguin at only nine months old. Pesto was hatched in Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium in Melbourne, Australia, on Jan.30th, 2024. At hatch, he already weighed 200 grams, and by the time of his reveal to the public in September, he was a staggering 22.5 kilograms (which is more than both of his parents combined). Imagine a fully grown adult penguin, but make it look like it was just born, baby down feathers and all, and then you’ve got Pesto. Pesto wasn’t treated any differently from any other penguin chicks at the aquarium, and he was always fed the normal amount for a penguin his age. Fans online have come to call Pesto an “absolute unit” or a “linebacker” due to his size, but Pesto will likely lose a lot of his weight as he fledges.

In all, the internet loves baby animals, and the craze around Moo Deng and Pesto proves that.