The zoo caring for Punch the monkey, the baby Macaque that captured the hearts of the world after seemingly being ostracized from his group, has delivered a timely update.
Punch, who lives at the Ichikawa City Zoological and Botanical Garden in Japan, went viral last month after his tragic story became known to the wider world.
A clip of the young monkey spread like wildfire online showing him cuddling a stuffed animal nearly as big as he is inside his enclosure. Zookeepers later revealed that the Japanese macaque had been rejected by his mother shortly after birth last July. With no maternal care, the infant began clinging to the aforementioned toy, which staff describe as a kind of “surrogate mother.”
In a video posted to X on March 19, the Ichikawa City Zoo looked to allay the fears of fans that Punch is the subject of continued bullying, insisting that they would not intervene to prevent the apparent harsh treatment he’s suffered at the hands of other monkeys.
Referencing a video shared to the zoo’s X account last month – one depicting Punch being dragged along by an adult monkey, believed to be the mother of another he attempted to interact with – they claimed he had not been subjected to “serious aggression”.
“Although Punch has been scolded many times by other monkeys, no single monkey has shown serious aggression toward him,” the Zoo explained last month.
“When you observe these disciplinary behaviors from other troop members toward Punch when he tries to communicate with them, we would like you to support Punch’s effort rather than feel sorry for him.”
In spite of their statement, the zoo has continued to receive messages from people concerned that Punch is actively being “bullied”.
This has led to the zoo doubling down on their insistence that the behavior exhibited is not abnormal. In their post to X earlier this week, they explained that the Macaques ‘follow a strict hierarchical society, and dominant individuals show ‘disciplining actions’ toward their subordinates.’
“These behaviors differ from human ‘abuses,’” the zoo added.
They went on: “The number of monkeys who look after or play with Punch is also increasing. Because of this, the time Punch spends away from his stuffed toy has increased.”
The zoo did, however, admit that some of the monkeys accused of bullying Punch had been removed from his enclosure on March 8.
“At this time, there has been no evidence that Punch has been attacked in a way that would threaten his survival,” they said.
“Furthermore, we have no intention of ignoring the ‘discipline’ or altering our care in order to attract sympathy from people and thereby increase the number of visitors to our zoo or increase profits.”
As for the possibility of relocating Punch to another enclosure, they sought to explain that such a decision could have detrimental ramifications.
“Punch has become accustomed to living in this troop, so separating him now would create the risk that he would never be able to return to the group and would have to continue living that way for the rest of his life,” the zoo stated.
“We share your concerns about Punch, and all the zookeepers and staff will continue to work together to ensure that Punch can continue to live a healthy life as part of this troop of monkeys.”
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