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.
At six months old, Moo Deng was already larger than both his parents, Hudson and Tango. By the time he reached nine months, he weighed over 20kg, surpassing the combined weight of his parents.
PETA, an animal rights organization, has expressed concerns about Moo Deng’s well-being and urged zoos to focus on conservation efforts that safeguard animals in their natural habitats.
The zoo insists the baby hippo receives the best possible care.
According to conservation expert Professor James Watson from the University of Queensland, zoos are valuable for educating the public, especially children, about wildlife. However, he cautioned against overly humanizing wild animals for entertainment purposes.
“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.”
