Punch, the monkey that went viral after being abandoned by his mother and found a friend in a stuffed animal, has a girlfriend.A TikTok shared by Overtime showed Punch the monkey cuddling a female macaque monkey. The video shows the two monkeys sitting close to each other, playing and kissing.This news comes days after Punch was revealed to be making friends in his zoo in Japan. The pint-sized primate has found new friends and is relying less on the orangutan stuffed toy given to him as a substitute for his mother, zookeeper Shunpei Miyakoshi recently told CNN.“Now he’s communicating with other monkeys and it’s great to see him reaching those milestones,” he said.Miyakoshi said Punch now hugs and plays with other monkeys, a stark contrast to previous heart-wrenching online clips showing how he was tackled and chased away by his own kind.The zoo said in a social media post that some higher-ranking members of the troop, who “have demonstrated aggression more frequently,” had been temporarily removed from the enclosure earlier this month.But the keeper said even those behaviors were considered normal in the world of the Japanese macaque, and peers are trying to teach Punch the hierarchy of their society.“Japanese macaques tend to be physical because, unlike humans, they don’t have languages taught to them… If they were being serious, they would bite much more aggressively,” he said.He also said widely shared videos capturing rough encounters only account for a few minutes of Punch’s day.CNN contributed to this report.
Punch, the monkey that went viral after being abandoned by his mother and found a friend in a stuffed animal, has a girlfriend.
A TikTok shared by Overtime showed Punch the monkey cuddling a female macaque monkey. The video shows the two monkeys sitting close to each other, playing and kissing.
This news comes days after Punch was revealed to be making friends in his zoo in Japan.
The pint-sized primate has found new friends and is relying less on the orangutan stuffed toy given to him as a substitute for his mother, zookeeper Shunpei Miyakoshi recently told CNN.
“Now he’s communicating with other monkeys and it’s great to see him reaching those milestones,” he said.
Miyakoshi said Punch now hugs and plays with other monkeys, a stark contrast to previous heart-wrenching online clips showing how he was tackled and chased away by his own kind.
The zoo said in a social media post that some higher-ranking members of the troop, who “have demonstrated aggression more frequently,” had been temporarily removed from the enclosure earlier this month.
But the keeper said even those behaviors were considered normal in the world of the Japanese macaque, and peers are trying to teach Punch the hierarchy of their society.
“Japanese macaques tend to be physical because, unlike humans, they don’t have languages taught to them… If they were being serious, they would bite much more aggressively,” he said.
He also said widely shared videos capturing rough encounters only account for a few minutes of Punch’s day.
CNN contributed to this report.
