“Nature Is Cruel”: After Being Rejected By Mother, Baby Monkey Finds Comfort In Stuffed Toy

A baby macaque has adopted a stuffed animal after being rejected by his mother.

Videos of the six-month-old, named Punch, carrying his companion around his enclosure at Japan’s Ichikawa City Zoo have received millions of views on social media.

In one clip, Punch appears to suck his thumb while sitting on top of the stuffed animal. He then leans down and snuggles into the toy’s head.

Infant monkeys instinctively cling to their mothers from birth, both for comfort and to build muscle, so zookeepers gave the baby towels and soft toys as substitutes. Of all the options, Punch chose the orangutan stuffed toy.

“The stuffed animal’s fur made it easy to grab, and its appearance is also similar to a monkey, which likely provided a sense of security,” Shikano added.

"The stuffed animal was a surrogate mother.”

The zookeeper explained that parental abandonment by monkeys can occur under certain circumstances.

“The burden of her [Punch’s mother] first birth may have been a factor,” Shikano suggested.

“In the monkey mountain troop, other mother monkeys sometimes take on childcare, so we observed from a distance on the day of birth, but there were no such signs.”

The Ichikawa City Zoo, located east of Tokyo, introduced the monkey to the world on X, writing, "Currently, there is a young monkey carrying a stuffed toy in the monkey mountain enclosure.”

Takashi Yasunaga, head of the Ichikawa Municipal Government's zoo, reported that visitor numbers at the zoo have increased since Punch’s story went viral, similar to what happened to Moo Deng, the famous baby pygmy hippo in Thailand.