Viral baby monkey Punch never lets go of his stuffed 'orange orangutan.' It's a childhood coping mechanism

A baby macaque at a zoo in Japan has recently captured attention online after visitors noticed he refuses to go anywhere without a stuffed toy. The story of Punch, shared in posts by Ichikawa City Zoo on X (@ichikawa_zoo), explains why the six-month-old monkey clings so tightly to an oversized orange stuffed orangutan, and the reason behind it is heartbreaking, as per the New York Post.

Punch, affectionately called "Punch-kun," was born in July 2025 but was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, according to local reports. In the wild, infant macaques cling to their mothers almost immediately, relying on constant physical contact for warmth, protection, and emotional regulation. Without that bond, Punch was left without the comfort most baby monkeys instinctively depend on. Caretakers at Ichikawa City Zoo stepped in to hand-raise him, monitoring his development closely while gradually preparing him to join other macaques. When he was introduced to a group enclosure in mid-January, staff observed that he struggled to integrate and often kept to himself.

To ease that transition, zookeepers placed a large stuffed orangutan inside his enclosure, and Punch latched onto it. According to reports shared by the zoo, he treats the toy "like the mother he never had," sleeping with it, carrying it during the day, and holding onto it while eating or resting. Photos posted by the zoo show him wrapping himself around the plush companion, which is nearly as big as he is. Zoo officials later shared that the turnout from visitors exceeded expectations after images of Punch spread online. In a February 15 statement, the zoo wrote, "We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who visited us today. All of our staff were surprised by the unexpected turnout, something we have never experienced before."

Studies help explain why Punch’s attachment may be more than symbolic. One of the most cited experiments on attachment in nonhuman primates was conducted by psychologist Harry Harlow, who studied how infant rhesus monkeys responded when separated from their mothers and raised with surrogate "mothers" made of cloth or wire. In these experiments, the infant monkeys overwhelmingly preferred to cling to the cloth surrogate — even when the wire surrogate provided food — showing that contact comfort plays a central role in attachment and stress regulation.

Visitors who saw Punch in person described the moment online. As per the New York Post, one person wrote on X, "I went to see Punch. He showed off his cute little toy, running and lying around." Another commented, "It is cute to see the little monkey dragging the stuffed animal around, but it is very sad at the same time." In a separate update, the zoo shared that Punch is "gradually deepening his interactions with the other monkeys in his group." They added that he is now being groomed, playing, and even being scolded, all normal parts of learning how to function within a troop. "He has a variety of experiences every day, such as being groomed, messing around with them, and being scolded, and he is learning every day how to live in a group as a monkey," the zoo wrote.

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