Ichikawa City Zoo have said that seven-month-old Japanese macaque Punch, who captured the hearts of netizens across the world, has made new friends and is spending more time away from his stuffed toy.
Punch’s new friends
Shunpei Miyakoshi, one of the zookeepers who became popular for caring for Punch, said that the monkey is now interacting more with other zoo monkeys and is less reliant on the stuffed orangutan that was given to him as a mother surrogate.
This statement came after videos of Punch climbing on the back of another monkey, receiving hugs from adult monkeys, and sitting alongside them went viral online, in sharp contrast to previous videos showing Punch being tackled and driven away by his own kind.
Punch’s new friends were identified by fans as Moe, Momiage and Sotomaru.
Punch was born in July 2025 at the Ichikawa City Zoo. Soon after his birth, his mother abandoned him.
In order to help him deal with the loss, the zoo offered him a stuffed orangutan plush to act as a mother figure, giving him affection and cuddles whenever he desired.
“He still uses it [the stuffed toy] when he feels it’s necessary – like when he’s going to sleep, or when he’s been disciplined by an adult monkey and feels a bit down – he goes to it to calm himself down,” Miyakoshi stated.
Miyakoshi also denied the claims that Punch was being “bullied” by the other monkeys and added that those behaviours are natural for the macaques and are part of them growing up.
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Experts say troop behaviour towards Punch is ‘normal’
Zoologists and experts view the other monkeys’ actions towards Punch as normal and a rite of passage, but the internet is still worried.
The zoo stated that the behaviour shown in the videos is not exclusive to Punch’s group and that Japanese primatologists have been studying native monkeys for about 80 years.
“Although Punch has been scolded many times by other monkeys, no single monkey has shown serious aggression toward him,” the zoo stated.
“When you observe these disciplinary behaviours from other troop members toward Punch when he tries to communicate with them, we would like you to support Punch’s effort rather than feel sorry for him.”
However, the zoo took some of the monkeys who had “demonstrated aggression more frequently” out of the enclosure as a “temporary measure” in response to worries about Punch.
“Punch has become accustomed to living in this troop, so separating him now would create the risk that he would never be able to return to the group and would have to continue living that way for the rest of his life,” the zoo explained.
“Japanese macaques tend to be physical because, unlike humans, they don’t have languages taught to them…If they were being serious, they would bite much more aggressively,” the zoo added.
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