{"id":500261,"date":"2026-02-24T04:51:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:51:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500261\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T04:51:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T04:51:19","slug":"a-rejected-monkey-finding-comfort-in-a-stuffed-toy-is-the-internets-new-favourite-animal-at-ichikawa-city-zoo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/500261\/","title":{"rendered":"A rejected monkey finding comfort in a stuffed toy is the internet’s new favourite animal at Ichikawa City Zoo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Punch, a lonely seven-month-old macaque monkey<\/a>, has struck a chord with millions of people worldwide. \ufeffHe was abandoned by his mother after his birth in July and was hand-raised by staff at the \ufeffIchikawa City Zoo in Japan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Punch was introduced to the other macaques in January, but without a mother to show him the ropes, he has \ufeffstruggled to fit in with the troop.<\/p>\n

\"Punch,Punch, a lonely seven-month-old macaque monkey, has struck a chord with millions of people worldwide. \ufeff (Ichikawa City Zoo\/X)<\/p>\n

Lonely and seeking comfort, Punch has been seen clinging to an IKEA stuffed orangutan he was given. \ufeff<\/p>\n

“Baby Japanese macaques immediately cling onto \ufefftheir mother’s body after birth to build muscle strength; they also get a sense of security holding on to something,” zookeeper Kosuke Shikano told the Guardian.<\/p>\n

“However, because he had been abandoned, \ufeffPunch had nothing.”<\/p>\n

\"PunchPunch the monkey with his orangutan toy. (Ichikawa City Zoo)<\/p>\n

Viral videos of him being rejected by other monkeys and hugging his toy have made him the newest internet celebrity with millions of fans rooting for him.<\/p>\n

“We need to give Punch a gun,” one user wrote. \ufeff<\/p>\n

“My mission in life now is to rescue Punch from the horrible monkeys he’s with and make him my baby,” another said.<\/p>\n

The zoo has responded to one particularly heartbreaking video of Punch being dragged by an adult monkey, \ufeffsaying he was merely being scolded as he learns how to socialise.<\/p>\n

“In order to integrate Punch into other Japanese monkey troops, we anticipated that this kind of challenge may arise,” the zoo said.<\/p>\n

“Although Punch has been scolded many times by other monkeys, no single monkey has shown serious aggression toward him.<\/p>\n

“While Punch is scolded, he shows resilience and mental strength.” \ufeff<\/p>\n

\"CrowdsCrowds form to see Punch the monkey at Ichikawa City Zoo, Japan. (Ichikawa City Zoo\/X)<\/p>\n

Punch’s plight has led to “\ufeffunprecedented and unexpected” crowds and two-hour wait lines at the zoo.<\/p>\n

IKEA Australia has also confirmed it has sold out of the orangutan toy online that Punch loves so much. \ufeff<\/p>\n

But there now appear to be signs that Punch is making friends, as recent videos show him being held by another monkey, groomed by two others and sitting with adults.<\/p>\n

\ufeffThe zoo yesterday said he is “steadily fitting into the group”.<\/p>\n

NEVER MISS A STORY: Get your breaking news and exclusive stories first by following us across all platforms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Punch, a lonely seven-month-old macaque monkey, has struck a chord with millions of people worldwide. \ufeffHe was abandoned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[64,63,128,338],"class_list":["post-500261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}