Monkey Punch finds brighter future - 30th March 2026

Ichikawa zoo in Japan has been attracting record numbers of visitors, thanks to a young macaque monkey. Punch, who was born at the zoo last July, hasn't had the easiest start.

First, his mother rejected him after the stress of giving birth during a heatwave. This meant that he was hand-fed by zookeepers until he could feed himself.

Then, when he'd returned to live with the zoo's other macaques, they started bullying and attacking him. He was regularly pushed out of the group and left isolated, and he developed anxiety.

The zookeepers decided to give Punch a cuddly toy orangutan, which he soon adopted as a substitute mother. He carried it with him everywhere and cuddled it for comfort.

Videos of Punch went viral with the hashtag #HangInTherePunch!, and news programmes featured his story. This winter, a surge in visitors has pushed the zoo's daily visitor count of under 200 to well above 2,000. Among them is US tourist Jon Frigillana.

Jon Frigillana: "We didn't fly to Japan all the way just for Punch. But, you know, he's been making the headlines. His story is cute, and we just wanted to see him."

Punch is slowly becoming more adventurous and less bullied, and instead, they're playing together more. Then there's Momo-Chan, a female macaque who's 5 years old. They've been spending considerable time playing together.

In contrast to all the bad news, Punch's story has a positive impact in the eyes of Viviane Oliveira, a tourist from Brazil.

Viviane Oliveira: "Yeah, I think he really represents, like, the sense of hope. Because it doesn't matter where you are, you know, there's always hope. You know, he was facing a hard time. But it doesn't mean - when you're facing hard time, it doesn't mean that we're going to be like that forever."