Viral monkey Punch rejected by mother given stuffed orangutan find a new home
Published by RawNews1st
An abandoned baby monkey who broke millions of hearts online, after being spotted hugging an orangutan stuffed toy given to him as a substitute for his mother, has finally found comfort among his own kind.
Punch, a young Japanese macaque at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, went viral after videos showed him dragging around and playing with a soft toy that zookeepers gave him.
During the first few months of his life, he struggled to bond with the other monkeys in his zoo’s enclosure and had only the company of his human keepers and the stuffed toy to rely on.
Abandoned by his mom at birth, baby monkey Punch only trusts his plush orangutan ‘mom’.He drags it everywhere, uses it as a shield when other monkeys scare him… yet he’s slowly trying to join the troop.Too pure for this world.
By January, it was time for Punch to be carefully reintegrated into the troop on the zoo’s “Monkey Mountain” enclosure. And it wasn’t easy for him at first.
Reintegration is essential for long-term development, but it can be socially brutal. Japanese macaques operate within strict hierarchies, and juveniles typically learn their place through their mothers. Without his own to show him the ropes, he struggled to navigate macaque social life.
Aware of his neglect, zookeepers gifted a stuffed orangutan from Ikea (the “Djungelskog” model”) to Punch as a both an emotional comfort, and as a way to increase his muscle strength. The stuffed toy quickly became Punch’s BFF. He cuddles it. Drags it. Rarely lets it out of sight.
One particularly adorable but equally heartbreaking clip shows Punch crawling around, desperately trying to get the plushie to hug him back – much to his obvious, and very sad, lack of luck.
The internet, of course, quickly took notice of the tiny fella. Emotional tear-jerking tributes have poured in, with users across platforms expressing a mix of affection and protectiveness toward the monkey. “I would adopt punch and love him forever” wrote one user. Another admitted: “3 days in a row crying over Punch.”
His story has even reportedly boosting sales of the IKEA Djungelskog toy. “Over the past few days, we have seen a clear increase in sales of the Djungelskog orangutan toy, particularly in Japan, the U.S. and South Korea,” IKEA said in a statement.
The Swedish-founded brand has also leaned into Punch’s newfound fame, featuring him in their advertising with a shot of a toy monkey hugging the Djungelskog orangutan, captioned: “Sometimes family is who we find along the way.” IKEA Japan have also donated dozens of plush toys to the zoo.
