‘Hang in there, Punch’: Viral baby monkey draws crowds to Ichikawa City Zoo
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Whenever a new animal captures the internet’s heart, we simply can’t look away. Lately, all eyes (and endless teary-eyed double-taps) have been on Punch, the adorable baby monkey from Ichikawa City Zoo in Chiba, Japan.
Clips of him clutching his beloved stuffed orangutan have been sweeping across social media, melting hearts around the world, leading to an avalanche of tourists and dominating headlines globally.
Everywhere you look, from Tiktok to mainstream TV, the world has obsessively been swooning over this viral baby monkey - and for good reason.
Punch was born on 26 July 2025, but was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. Zookeepers then stepped in to take matters into their own hands and raise the tiny macaque themselves.
In the wild, infant monkeys typically cling to their mothers from the very beginning. For Punch, soft blankets and stuffed toys have taken on that role, offering warmth and comfort to ease his anxiety.
Among them, he chose one steadfast companion; A stuffed orangutan he, like a human toddler, now clings to while sleeping and throughout the day.
The world appears to have collectively moved from Moo Deng's chaotic energy to Punch's villain era origin story -and it's a calculated masterclass in digital empathy.
Punch's emotional survival story became a global "fever dream" overnight.
After being rejected by his mother, Punch adopted a large orange stuffed ape as a surrogate and when footage of him being "bullied" by his troop hit social media in mid-February 2026, it triggered
an 11-million-view explosion of protective stan culture.
A series of widely shared posts showing his predicament - including a hashtag started by the zoo, #HangInTherePunch - put Punch in the global spotlight and made him somewhat of an internet celebrity.
Legions of fans from around the world have been cheering Punch on, welcoming him as a bright spot during intense current events and thousands pouring into the zoo just to catch a glimpse of this little charmer.
According to the zoo management, Punch was abandoned by his mother, most likely because of a difficult labor during a heat wave.
He was nursed by staff.
He was then reintroduced to the troop at the zoo’s monkey enclosure, called monkey mountain, in January, but without a mother to show him the way, Punch had a difficult time integrating.
Videos showed Punch getting swatted away by adults when he tried to approach them, and frequently playing by himself, appearing lonely and even scared, as the adults barely took notice of him.
“My mission in life now is to rescue Punch from the horrible monkeys he’s with and make him my baby,” one social media user wrote.
"Stop showing me that little monkey being bullied by other monkeys, I know he finally got a hug from one but I am not in a mental place to see it I will fly to japan and beat up the mean monkeys," another wrote.
But he wasn’t totally alone: Punch was given a now-famous stuffed orangutan toy to build muscle strength.
In viral videos warming hearts online, he cuddles, tugs and plays with the orangutan, dragging it around the monkey mountain like he would a best friend.
About 8,000 people visited the zoo last weekend, more than double the number of visitors on the same Saturday and Sunday of the previous year, zoo officials told world media. More are expected this weekend.
Shunpei Miyakoshi, an animal keeper at the zoo, told ANN News in Japan that baby monkeys cling to their mothers for security and to build muscle strength.
The zoo tried rolled-up towels as a substitute, Mr. Miyakoshi said, and even a giraffe. But Punch particularly liked the toy primate.
Miyakoshi named him Punch after a famous Japanese cartoonist, Kazuhiko Kato, who went by Monkey Punch, he told the outlet Oricon.
Kosuke Kano, another animal keeper at the zoo, told TBS News Dig that Punch almost immediately took to the stuffed animal and it has now become a sense of security. That was evident in a video that surfaced on Thursday of a senior macaque going after Punch, only for the little monkey to run away to be comforted by his plush toy.
The zoo has two versions of the toy, and has received many other stuffed animals as gifts, including a batch from IKEA, where the toy is listed as a best seller. “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, though the company would not say how many toys had been sold.
“What matters most to us is not that he holds on to our product,” Karin Blindh Pedersen, a leader on IKEA’s children’s toy team, said of Punch in a statement, “but that he is supported at his own pace — and that his soft toy friend can continue to help him cope until he is fully ready to let go.”
In their Friday statement, the zookeepers reiterated that “no single monkey has shown serious aggression toward” Punch.
They asked that the public “support Punch’s effort rather than feel sorry for him. "While Punch is scolded, he shows resilience and mental strength,” the statement said.
Whether Punch will need more plushes as his social life grows remains to be seen. But as one X user wrote, the baby monkey is "proof that even in the toughest starts, love (and a good cuddle buddy) wins."
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