{"id":477371,"date":"2026-02-19T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477371\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T07:07:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T07:07:08","slug":"punch-the-monkey-finds-unlikely-comfort-in-ikea-orangutan-toy-after-being-abandoned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477371\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Punch’ the monkey finds unlikely comfort in IKEA orangutan toy after being abandoned"},"content":{"rendered":"

Punch, a six-month-old baby macaque monkey from Japan, is capturing the hearts of users on the internet with his unlikely friendship with a popular stuffed animal.<\/a><\/p>\n

Punch was rejected by his mother after birth, as well as his fellow monkeys, but that didn\u2019t stop him from finding companionship.<\/p>\n

Thanks to caretakers at the Ichikawa Zoo in Japan, he has bonded with an orange stuffed orangutan from IKEA<\/a> that became his version of a security blanket.<\/p>\n

He hasn\u2019t let go of that toy since. That same toy is on sale for $20<\/a> as the IKEA DJUNGELSKOG Orangutan in case you are looking for something to cuddle and comfort you.<\/p>\n

Here is what people have been saying about Punch the monkey and his stuffed animal.<\/p>\n

What have people been saying about Punch and his orangutan stuffed animal?<\/p>\n

People around the world have weighed in about Punch\u2019s newfound friend at the zoo.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is cute to see the little monkey dragging the stuffed animal around but it is very sad at the same time,\u201d one user wrote on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI want to tell him it\u2019s going to be ok,\u201d another user wrote on X.<\/a><\/p>\n

The zoo has also reported that Punch is starting to integrate with other monkeys in his enclosure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s getting groomed, playfully poking at others, getting scolded, and having all sorts of experiences every day, steadily learning how to live as a monkey within the troop!\u201d the zoo posted earlier this month.<\/a><\/p>\n

You can follow Punch\u2019s exploits through the Ichikawa Zoo\u2019s social media channel.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Punch, a six-month-old baby macaque monkey from Japan, is capturing the hearts of users on the internet with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-477371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}