PUNCH THE MONKEY

Punch is a baby Japanese macaque who was born at the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan. I am sure many of you must have seen him on social media considering he is really popular nowadays because of his cuteness and sad story. Have you ever seen Punch or heard his story? Let me show you a photo of this sweet little creature!

Isn't he so cute? As you can see, he has a plush, monkey toy in his hands. Punch never leaves his toys side. The cause of this strong connection he has with his toy is actually extremely sad. Punch was actually abandoned by his mother and rejected by the rest of his troop, so his zookeepers at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan provided Punch with an orangutan plushie as a mother. Punch and his toys bond grew over time and they became inseparable. Whenever punch went and tried to play and blend in with the others, they would either punch him or beat him, hurting him to the point he ran away to his beloved plushie, hugging it as his friend, mother. This plushie was like his only friend, only thing he could run to get away from those who bullied him. The other monkeys would also try to destroy and hurt his stuffed monkey friend, so Punch always protected his plushie to make sure the others did not destroy it since Punch saw it as his mother.

When humans came to their cage, Punch would want to go back with them inside, not wanting and refusing to stay with the other monkeys, climbing on to the humans leg for them not to leave him because he did not feel welcome there. The zookeepers say they do not help in these situations because they need to get Punch to socialize. They say the other monkeys show frustration with him because they are actually trying to melt him into what is good and bad or right and wrong in the community.

After a few bad and hard weeks though, Punch has finally been accepted by at least a couple

of monkeys, some of them are acting towards him like they do to other monkeys, they are sitting with him, grooming him. He still gets bullied a lot but at least now he is not alone. There is one particular monkey that Punch seems to be getting alone really well, people are calling them his little squad like they are a team. And don't worry, Punch still does not ever leave his plushies side. They are still and always will be inseparable. I hope Punch makes more friends and the bullying stops, what do you think? Does this little cute monkey really deserves the bullying, and will the bullying stop eventually? I guess time will show.