More than a hundred visitors gathered on Friday as they had for several days in a Japanese zoo to see a little abandoned 7-month-old macaque which has moved social networks around the world.
“We have been here since this morning. We rarely come to the zoo, but we wanted to see the adorable Punch,” said Sayaka Takimoto, 32, who drove two hours with her husband to see the young primate.
Like many other visitors, the couple discovered Punch on social media, finding him “adorable” with his stuffed orangutan for company.
Punch, who became an internet star, was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth. Images of the little animal desperately clinging to zookeepers and its stuffed toy have been widely shared on platforms like X in recent days.
Hang in there, Punch!
A whole community of dedicated internet users began posting news of the baby monkey under the hashtag #HangInTherePunch.
Punch’s situation began to improve earlier this month: keepers at the Ichikawa Zoo near Tokyo posted a message saying he was gradually integrating into a group of monkeys, “teasing others and getting scolded.”
So, again on Friday, about a hundred visitors gathered around the monkey enclosure at the zoo, straining to take photos of the beloved animal and shouting “hang in there!” while Punch tried to approach the other members of the group.
“He’s so cute I had to come see him,” smiles another visitor, who introduced herself under the name Yoko.
“I looked at his photos carefully in advance to be able to recognize him,” the 50-year-old woman told AFP.
“I’m a little sad that he’s growing up so quickly, but I’m relieved to see that he’s making friends,” she added.
