Punch, the orphaned monkey at a Japanese zoo who stole many people’s hearts by clinging to a toy orangutan, is celebrating his first birthday with a torrent of well-wishes from his fans all over the world – even though he now has friends and is no longer clinging to the toy.
Bunch was abandoned by his mother after giving birth a year ago on Sunday, possibly due to exhaustion.
Zoo keepers cared for him and gave him toys to develop his grasping ability, something newborn macaques need to survive.
No longer a chubby baby with plush, Punch is difficult to distinguish from the other monkeys as he mixes with them and plays with them in an enclosure at the Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Garden.
It continues to attract large crowds, and has received about 2,500 Christmas cards from inside and outside Japan, said Takashi Yasunaga, head of the zoo.
Many cards and other letters fill the walls in the indoor Punch Birthday Gallery where visitors can also watch a video chronicling Punch from his early days.
“While Bunch was trying hard to get by every day, his two guards did everything they could while the other employees watched him,” Yasunaga said as he recalled the past year.
“It was very hot when Punch was born. The memory is still clear to me as the hot season returns.”
In mid-January, after six months of special care by his keepers, Punch was placed in the zoo’s monkey enclosure to join about 50 other monkeys – a challenge that made him famous.
In February, photos of Punch with his toy posted by the zoo on social media caused a sensation and led tens of thousands of visitors to the zoo, half of them from abroad, Yasunaga said.
When the other monkeys chased the baby away, Bunch rushed back to the toy orangutan, cuddling him for comfort. Fans cheered him on with the hashtag #HangInTherePunch on social media.
Fans say it wasn’t just the cuteness of seeing Punch with his game, but also his struggle to gradually be accepted by others that struck a chord.
Komi Ishizawa, a Kobe resident who was at the Christmas fair, said she found Punch on social media earlier this year. From then on, overcoming her illness to come see him became her goal.
“I was touched by it… I kept telling myself I’ll get better and I’ll come visit Bunch,” said Ishizawa, who has since recovered and went to the zoo after wrapping up a business trip.
“And here I am, I made it. I’m so happy I finally got to see him in person.”
Longtime resident Yeye Lights had never visited the zoo until she became a fan of Punch and now has an annual visitor pass.
She became attached to Punch after her daughter in the Philippines told her about the monkey.
“I have a cake for Punch-kun, and I’m celebrating with my friends,” Lights said, using a cute Japanese honorific for the boys. She thanked those taking care of the monkey for taking good care of it.