{"id":329975,"date":"2026-03-14T22:58:11","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T22:58:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/329975\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T22:58:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T22:58:11","slug":"punch-the-monkey-is-finally-making-friends-and-fitting-in","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/329975\/","title":{"rendered":"Punch the monkey is finally making friends and fitting in"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chiba, Japan
\n \u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n Images of him being bullied by his enclosure-mates, retreating to safety and clinging to a plushie look-alike<\/a> for comfort won hearts around the world.\n <\/p>\n

\n But finally, Punch the monkey is fitting in.\n <\/p>\n

\n And his zookeeper has told CNN that the seemingly rough videos that alarmed Punch\u2019s global legions of fans are just part of growing up for the seven-month-old macaque, who lives at Japan<\/a>\u2019s Ichikawa City Zoo.\n <\/p>\n

\n The pint-sized primate has found new friends and is relying less on the orangutan stuffed toy given to him as a substitute for his mother, Shunpei Miyakoshi said, during CNN\u2019s recent visit to the zoo.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n \u201cNow he\u2019s communicating with other monkeys and it\u2019s great to see him reaching those milestones,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n He said Punch now hugs and plays with other monkeys, a stark contrast to previous heart-wrenching online clips showing how he was tackled and chased away by his own kind.\n <\/p>\n

\n The zoo said in a social media post that some higher-ranking members of the troop, who \u201chave demonstrated aggression more frequently,\u201d had been temporarily removed from the enclosure earlier this month.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the keeper said even those behaviors were considered normal in the world of the Japanese macaque, and peers are trying to teach Punch the hierarchy of their society.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cJapanese macaques tend to be physical because, unlike humans, they don\u2019t have languages taught to them\u2026 If they were being serious, they would bite much more aggressively,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n He also said widely shared videos capturing rough encounters only account for a few minutes of Punch\u2019s day.\n <\/p>\n

\n But the road to full integration remains long. During CNN\u2019s recent visit to the zoo, the baby monkey was spending most of his time alone.\n <\/p>\n

\n Videos popping up on social media occasionally show hairy moments. In one clip, Punch was wrestled to the ground by an older peer, causing him to run frantically to his plushie for emotional support.\n <\/p>\n

\"Punch<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe still uses it when he feels it\u2019s necessary \u2013 like when he\u2019s going to sleep, or when he\u2019s been disciplined by an adult monkey and feels a bit down \u2013 he goes to it to calm himself down,\u201d said Miyakoshi.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe\u2019s been doing his best to grow, learning from those early experiences.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Visitors from around the world, including K-pop star Lisa from Blackpink, are flocking to the zoo to catch a glimpse of the internet star.\n <\/p>\n

\n Some say Punch\u2019s story strikes a personal chord.\n <\/p>\n

\n Nasser Hashem, from the US, planned a trip to Japan with his sister just to see Punch.\n <\/p>\n

\"20260305<\/p>\n

Why we all love Punch the monkey\n <\/p>\n

CNN’s Hanako Montgomery visited the internet’s favorite plush-carrying monkey, Punch, to ask the question, “How’s he doing today?”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Why we all love Punch the monkey<\/p>\n

1:11 <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think we all could relate to him to some sense being in an unfamiliar environment, not knowing the people around you, and then just trying to fit in as much as we can,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Melanie Fortier, also from the US, said she just couldn\u2019t pass up the \u201conce-in-a-lifetime\u201d opportunity to see the baby monkey.\n <\/p>\n

\n For her, Punch gives hope at a time when negative news around the world fills her social media feed.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhen you see something like an animal coming up \u2013 just hopefulness, and just they have nothing but care and love to give \u2013 it is refreshing sometimes and a breath of fresh air,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chiba, Japan \u00a0\u2014\u00a0 Images of him being bullied by his enclosure-mates, retreating to safety and clinging to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[111,139,69,147,406],"class_list":["post-329975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329975","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=329975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}