{"id":355454,"date":"2026-03-30T16:30:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:30:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355454\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T16:30:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T16:30:21","slug":"punch-the-monkey-clings-to-zoo-keeper-as-they-replace-his-surrogate-mother-with-new-toy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/355454\/","title":{"rendered":"Punch the monkey clings to zoo keeper as they replace his surrogate mother with new toy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Watch as<a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/tv\/news\/japan-baby-monkey-toy-orangutan-zoo-video-b2922537.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Punch the monkey;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Punch the monkey&quot;}\" class=\"link \"> Punch the monkey<\/a> clings to a zoo keeper\u2019s leg as they switch out his beloved cuddly orangutan toy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Punch, a six-month-old baby macaque from Japan, has broken millions of hearts after <a href=\"https:\/\/sg.news.yahoo.com\/abandoned-baby-monkey-plushy-mother-084252197.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:videos of him dragging around a stuffed animal;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;videos of him dragging around a stuffed animal&quot;}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">videos of him dragging around a stuffed animal<\/a> given to him as a substitute mother went viral online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">He had been rejected by his biological mother shortly after he was born in July last year, and multiple clips show Punch also being ostracised by his fellow monkeys at Ichikawa City Zoo.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In a new clip, Punch can be seen jumping onto a zoo keeper\u2019s leg as they took away his dirty toy and replaced it with a new one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Watch as Punch the monkey clings to a zoo keeper\u2019s leg as they switch out his beloved cuddly&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[118595,111,139,69,147,406,187957],"class_list":["post-355454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-biological-mother","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-science","tag-wildlife","tag-zoo-keeper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355454","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=355454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}