A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week.
Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born in July last year at Ichikawa City Zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother.
Without maternal guidance to help him integrate, Punch has turned to the toy for comfort. He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with the toy after being pushed away by other monkeys, and clutching it tightly while being harassed. Viewers were briefly relieved when later videos emerged of another monkey grooming and comforting him.
Photo: Reuters
However, just days later, new footage showed Punch once again being targeted — this time dragged aggressively in a circle by a much larger monkey before running to hide behind a rock, hugging his toy.
The videos have prompted questions about why monkeys abandon their babies. Alison Behie, a primatology expert at Australian National University, said such abandonment is unusual, but can occur under certain conditions, citing “age, health and inexperience” as possible factors.
“In Punch’s case, their mother was a first-time mother, indicating inexperience,” Behie said.
Photo: Reuters
“Zookeepers also suggest Punch was born during a heatwave, which would be a high stress environment. In environments where survival is threatened from outside stress, mothers may prioritize their own health and future reproduction rather than continue to care for an infant whose health may be compromised by those environmental conditions,” she added.
Following Punch’s abandonment, zookeepers introduced the stuffed orangutan after trying alternatives, including rolling towels to different thicknesses for him to cling to.
“Baby Japanese macaques immediately cling on to their mother’s body after birth to build muscle strength. They also get a sense of security through holding on to something,” they said.
However, because he had been abandoned, Punch had nothing to grip on to,” zookeeper Kosuke Shikano said.
“We thought that [the toy] looking like a monkey might help Punch integrate back into the troop later on,” he added.
Referring to the stuffed orangutan, Behie said: “The toy Punch has may be serving as an attachment figure, especially given they are six months old so likely still need to be nursed.”
Behie added that the behaviors of other monkey towards Punch “isn’t bullying or any abnormal behavior, but regular social interaction.”
macaques have strict matrilineal hierarchies, where higher-ranking families assert dominance over lower-ranking ones, she said, adding that even with his mother, Punch would probably still face this aggression.
However, without his mother “Punch may not develop the appropriate subordinate responses to show they submit to the dominance, which could have ongoing implications for the way they integrate into the group as an adult,” she said.
In recent days, the zoo has experienced a surge of visitors hoping to catch a glimpse of Punch. In response, officials have enforced stricter barriers around the enclosure and urged visitors to remain quiet, avoid using stepladders or tripods for photography and limit prolonged viewing.
Carla Litchfield, a conservation psychologist at Adelaide University, pointed to the intelligence of Japanese macaques and, as a result, their popularity for biomedical and neuroscience experiments in Japan.
She added that macaques were culled in Japan because of their habit of raiding crops.
“This story about Punch highlights the impacts of habitat loss, climate change, zoo animal welfare, and the power of social media to connect people to animals,” Litchfield said. “However, hopefully the millions of social media likes, and attention won’t exacerbate the problem of illegal trade in infant monkeys for the exotic pet trade, because everyone thinks baby monkeys are cute and would make a great pet.”
“Monkeys grow up quickly — Punch will be an adult in four years — and people no longer find them cute and manageable. Monkeys belong with other monkeys. They are social beings and need to be with their own species to thrive mentally and physically,” she said.
Punch is not the first zoo animal to garner global fascination — Moo Deng, the young pygmy hippo in Thailand captured hearts in 2024 with her stubborn attitude and star quality.
A humanoid robot that won a half-marathon race for robots in Beijing on Sunday ran faster than the human world record in a show of China’s technological leaps. The winner from Honor, a Chinese smartphone maker, completed the 21km race in 50 minutes and 26 seconds, said a WeChat post by the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, also known as Beijing E-Town, where the race began. That was faster than the human world record holder, Ugandan Jacob Kiplimo, who finished the same distance in about 57 minutes in March at the Lisbon road race. The performance by the robot marked a significant step forward
Four contenders are squaring up to succeed Antonio Guterres as secretary-general of the UN, which faces unprecedented global instability, wars and its own crushing budget crisis. Chile’s Michelle Bachelet, Argentina’s Rafael Grossi, Costa Rica’s Rebeca Grynspan and Senegal’s Macky Sall are each to face grillings by 193 member states and non-governmental organizations for three hours today and tomorrow. It is only the second time the UN has held a public question-and-answer, a format created in 2016 to boost transparency. Ultimately the five permanent members of the UN’s top body, the Security Council, hold the power, wielding vetoes over who leads the
An earthquake registering a preliminary magnitude of 7.7 off northern Japan on Monday prompted a short-lived tsunami alert and the advisory of a higher risk of a possible mega-quake for coastal areas there. The Cabinet Office and the Japan Meteorological Agency said there was a 1% chance for a mega-quake, compared to a 0.1% chance during normal times, in the next week or so following the powerful quake near the Chishima and Japan trenches. Officials said the advisory was not a quake prediction but urged residents in 182 towns along the northeastern coasts to raise their preparedness while continuing their daily lives. Prime
South Korea’s air force yesterday apologized for a 2021 midair collision involving two fighter jets, a day after auditors said the pilots were taking selfies and filming during the flight and held them responsible for the accident. “We sincerely apologize to the public for the concern caused by the accident that occurred in 2021,” an air force spokesman told a news conference, adding that one of the pilots involved had been suspended from flying duties, received severe disciplinary action and has since left the military. The apology followed a report released on Wednesday by the South Korean Board of Audit and Inspection,
RSS