An abandoned baby monkey who broke millions of hearts online after he was seen hugging a stuffed toy orangutan given to him as a replacement for his mother has finally found solace among his own kind.
Punch, a young Japanese macaque at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo, went viral after videos showed him being dragged around and playing with a soft toy that zoo keepers had given him.
During the first few months of his life, he struggled to bond with the other monkeys in his zoo enclosure and had only the company of his human keepers and a stuffed toy. But recent videos show he’s changing things. One monkey hugged him and observed others grooming him, an important part of macaque socialization.
Matt Lovett, director of the UK’s Trentham Monkey Forest, spoke to BBC Breakfast about Punch’s behaviour.
“It’s great to see him start to groom, because that’s an important way in which these primates can start to form friendships with the monkeys in their group,” said Lovatt, who oversees the welfare of Barbary macaques at a wildlife sanctuary near Stoke-on-Trent.
Video edited by Marina Costa
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