Images of Punch, or Punch-kun as he\u2019s also known, with his beloved toy went viral after they were posted to the zoo\u2019s X account.<\/p>\n
Soon the hashtag #HangInTherePunch became a trending topic, with social media users sending messages of support to the primate.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll be his surrogate mom!!!\u201d one person offered.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow he can be accepted from other monkeys slowly,\u201d wrote another, adding, \u201cpeople around the world are cuddling him too\u201d.<\/p>\n
A third commenter joked: \u201cI\u2019m not crying, you are\u201d, before calling Punch a sweet baby and saying she wanted to \u201cscoop him up\u201d.<\/p>\n
Punch\u2019s online popularity has led to a spike in visitor numbers at Ichikawa City Zoo, according to the New York Post.<\/p>\n
Staff were reportedly surprised by the turnout and many visitors described their experiences on social media.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to see Punch. \ufe0fHe showed off his cute little toy, running and lying around,\u201d said one X user.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople were there to see Punch! Indeed, the monkey mountain was packed even in the morning. The kids seemed to love the park area! We hope to visit again soon!\u201d said another.<\/p>\n
Punch has a close bond with his soft toy but is slowly making inroads with the macaque troop at Ichikawa City Zoo. Photo \/ @ichikawa_zoo<\/p>\n
The Bangkok Post reported Punch had begun cautiously integrating with a troop of macaques at the zoo but was keeping his soft toy, affectionately called Ora-mama, nearby.<\/p>\n
Despite being overwhelmed at first, it is understood Punch has been accepted by one of the monkeys who has started to groom him.<\/p>\n
In an update on Punch\u2019s wellbeing, the zoo wrote: \u201cHe has a variety of experiences every day, such as being groomed, messing around with [other monkeys in his group], and being scolded, and he is learning every day how to live in a group as a monkey!\u201d<\/p>\n
Sign up to Herald Premium Editor\u2019s Picks<\/a>, delivered straight to your inbox every Friday. Editor-in-Chief Murray Kirkness picks the week\u2019s best features, interviews and investigations. Sign up for Herald Premium here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Images of Punch, or Punch-kun as he\u2019s also known, with his beloved toy went viral after they were…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[74,665,806,6794,93956,160884,121775,15356,9517,94796,45787,1759,108007,10136,111,139,69,68269,254,101263,147,100396,95461,61,24172,406,377,3651],"class_list":{"0":"post-289923","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-around","10":"tag-as","11":"tag-baby","12":"tag-captivated","13":"tag-clings","14":"tag-clutching","15":"tag-emerged","16":"tag-fans","17":"tag-flock","18":"tag-hearts","19":"tag-japan","20":"tag-monkey","21":"tag-named","22":"tag-new-zealand","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-orangutan","26":"tag-photos","27":"tag-punch","28":"tag-science","29":"tag-soft","30":"tag-stuffed","31":"tag-to","32":"tag-toy","33":"tag-wildlife","34":"tag-world","35":"tag-zoo"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}