Punch, the lonely monkey, is growing up. He’s still a star.

JAPAN / Society

Punch, the lonely monkey, is growing up. He’s still a star.

Punch, a Japanese macaque known for clinging to a stuffed orangutan, looks on at Ichikawa City Zoo in Chiba Prefecture, in March. | REUTERS

By Javier C. Hernandez and Hisako Ueno
The New York Times

May 9, 2026

ICHIKAWA, Chiba Pref. – It was feeding time on Monkey Mountain at the Ichikawa City Zoo. Grunts and squeals broke out among the 56 resident macaques as a zookeeper made the rounds with a bucket of apples, sweet potatoes and cabbage.

Moments later, Monkey Mountain’s most famous resident emerged: Punch, the now 9-month-old macaque who became an internet sensation after he was abandoned by his mother at birth and turned to an orangutan toy for comfort.

“Look at him go!” said David Lena, 11, from Spain, who was visiting the zoo with his parents in the leafy suburbs of Tokyo for the third time in a week. “I want to hold him so badly!”