Punch, the abandoned baby macaque at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, stole the hearts of many after a video showed him dragging a stuffed orangutan around his enclosure.
The infant monkey was abandoned by his mother at birth and raised by zoo staff, in line with the zoo’s website. The stuffed animal was given to Punch to function a surrogate mother and supply comfort for the now seven-month-old macaque.
More recently, a video taken by TikTok user @tate_punch shows the monkey being dragged across the bottom by a bigger macaque on Thursday. After the interaction, Punch ran to his plushie and hugged it while a number of other macaques got here to ascertain on him.
This photo taken on Feb. 19, 2026 shows a seven-month-old male macaque monkey named Punch, who was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, spending time with a stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Chiba Prefecture.
JIJI PRESS / AFP via Getty Images
After the footage circulated online, the Ichikawa City Zoo said in an announcement on Friday that when Punch approached one other baby monkey from the troop in an try and communicate, the opposite baby monkey avoided him.
When Punch sat down and gave up attempting to play with the monkey, he was “scolded and dragged by an adult monkey,” the zoo said.
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“The adult monkey that dragged Punch might be the mother of the monkey with whom Punch tried to speak. She probably felt that her baby was annoyed by Punch and got upset, expressing ‘don’t be mean,’” the statement continued.
The zoo said Punch has been “scolded by other monkeys over and over previously and has learned find out how to socialize with them.”
“Within the video, Punch runs to his stuffed orangutan toy after being dragged. Nonetheless, as usual, he left the stuffed toy after a short time and was communicating with other monkeys,” the statement continued. “The video was probably recorded on the morning of February 19. During feeding time at 12 p.m. and three p.m., Punch acted no in a different way than on some other day.”
The zoo said that in an effort to integrate Punch into the opposite Japanese monkey troops, they anticipated that this type of challenge might arise.
“Although Punch has been scolded over and over by other monkeys, no single monkey has shown serious aggression towards him,” the zoo said.
“While Punch is scolded, he shows resilience and mental strength. While you observe these disciplinary behaviors from other troop members toward Punch when he tries to speak with them, we would really like you to support Punch’s effort fairly than feel sorry for him.”
Punch was born on July 26, 2025 and has been living with the troop since Jan. 19, in line with a post on X from the zoo.
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