An abandoned baby monkey who broke millions of hearts online, after being spotted hugging an orangutan stuffed toy given to him as a substitute for his mother, has finally found comfort among his own kind.
Punch, a young Japanese macaque at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, went viral after videos showed him dragging around and playing with a soft toy that zookeepers gave him.
During the first few months of his life, he struggled to bond with the other monkeys in his zoo’s enclosure and had only the company of his human keepers and the stuffed toy to rely on. But recent videos show he’s turning things around. He was given a hug by one monkey and was seen grooming others, a key part of macaque socialisation.
Matt Lovatt, director for the UK’s Trentham Monkey Forest, spoke to BBC Breakfast about the behaviour of Punch.
“It’s been great to see him starting to groom, because that’s the key way these primates can start to build up friendships with the monkeys within their group”, said Lovatt, who oversees the well-being of the Barbary macaques at a wildlife sanctuary near Stoke-on-Trent.
Video edited by Marina Costa
