{"id":292403,"date":"2026-02-19T22:41:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:41:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292403\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T22:41:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T22:41:07","slug":"ikeas-kind-gesture-toward-viral-baby-monkey-abandoned-by-his-mom-is-touching-hearts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/292403\/","title":{"rendered":"IKEA’s Kind Gesture Toward Viral Baby Monkey Abandoned By His Mom Is Touching Hearts"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet in the past week, there’s no doubt you’ve seen photos of Punch, the adorable baby monkey<\/a> (technically, a macaque) who lives at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan. After being abandoned by his mother, Punch has taken on a plush monkey as his new BFF, and the two are inseparable.<\/p>\n

Now, we have a sweet update to Punch’s story. IKEA is stepping up to offer him even more comfort during this time, and it sounds like his stuffy collection is about to grow!<\/p>\n

As Metro UK reports in the video above, IKEA Japan’s CEO has donated several of his favorite plush orangutans to Punch so that he will always have a backup in case he needs it. If your pet (or human kid) has ever had a beloved toy that would cause mass chaos if it disappeared, you’ll know just how big this is!<\/p>\n

And honestly, after everything that Punch has been through, he deserves all the stuffies in the world.<\/p>\n

Related: Floppy Afghan Hound Puppy Looks Like a Cross Between a Monkey and Big Bird<\/a><\/p>\n

Punch’s Story<\/p>\n

Punch first went viral earlier this week when photos of him showed this tiny boy trying to survive in the world without any parents to show him the way. Yes, it was very heartbreaking to see the way that the other monkeys seemed to reject him at first (I may have cried) but at the same time, his adorable bond with his favorite toy also brought people from all over the world a lot of joy.<\/p>\n

According to News.com.au, Punch was left on his own<\/a> at the zoo after he was born last July, and was raised by zoo caretakers, rather than his mom. They were the ones who had the idea to offer him the plush to cuddle, and it turned out to be such a wonderful idea.<\/p>\n

Now, people from all over are coming to the zoo to see Punch.<\/p>\n

“We extend our heartfelt gratitude to all visitors who came to the park today,” said a statement from the zoo<\/a> that was shared on X. “The staff is greatly surprised by the unprecedented and unexpected crowds we experienced.”<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc36<\/a>SIGN UP to get \u201cpawsitivity\u201d delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/a>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Parade Pets<\/a> on Feb 19, 2026, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add Parade Pets as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you’ve spent any amount of time on the internet in the past week, there’s no doubt you’ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[161862,668,161861,111,139,69,101263,147,406],"class_list":{"0":"post-292403","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-ichikawa-city-zoo","9":"tag-ikea","10":"tag-ikea-japan","11":"tag-new-zealand","12":"tag-newzealand","13":"tag-nz","14":"tag-punch","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292403","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=292403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}