Punch the Monkey Found Love and His New Girlfriend Is the Same Color as His Stuffed Toy
Punch the monkey found love at Ichikawa City Zoo, and the kissing videos are as adorable as you'd imagine.
If you haven’t been following the saga of Punch the monkey, now is the time to catch up.
The Japanese macaque who captured millions of hearts by clinging to a stuffed orangutan has entered a new chapter: romance. And the details are almost too good.
Punch the Monkey finds love in a crowded place
On March 15, videos surfaced showing Punch—whose full name is Panchi-kun—cuddling and playing with another macaque inside his enclosure at the Ichikawa City Zoo. Social media users quickly gave her a name: Momo-chan, meaning “little peach” in Japanese.
The two monkeys are roughly the same size, but there’s one detail that has the internet buzzing. Punch’s hair runs more gray, while Momo-chan’s has an orange tint. That orange hue? It closely matches the color of the stuffed orangutan Punch has carried around for months.
“Punch has found his other half,” Nexta TV wrote in a post on X. “His new companion turned out to be the same color as the plush ‘mom’ he used to carry everywhere.”
In one video, Punch was sitting with his stuffed monkey when Momo-chan grabbed his tail. The two monkeys proceeded to horse around in what looked like flirty banter.
A separate photo captured the pair sitting next to each other on what appeared to be a date, followed by what looked like a smooch on the lips.
The PDA was hard to miss.
And for anyone worried that Punch’s new social life means the end of his signature stuffed companion: he hasn’t let go of that either. Even as he’s made friends—including connections beyond Momo-chan—the stuffed monkey remains part of his routine.
How Punch the Monkey became an internet phenomenon
Punch’s story started with abandonment. He was born at the Ichikawa City Zoo on July 26, 2025, but his mother quickly abandoned him. Zookeepers stepped in and raised him through hand-rearing, a process that kept him alive but left him without the typical social bonds a young macaque would develop within a troop.
Then he went viral in February 2026. Multiple videos on X showed his obsession with a stuffed orange orangutan sold by IKEA. The small monkey clutched it constantly, and viewers latched onto the image of a baby primate finding comfort in a plush toy after being rejected by his mother.
Other footage told a harder story. Some videos showed Punch struggling to acclimate to the clan, with certain monkeys appearing to bully him.
Zookeepers later clarified that what viewers interpreted as bullying was actually discipline—the troop’s way of socializing a newcomer. Still, the internet rallied around the underdog narrative of an abandoned monkey finding solace in a stuffed friend.
“Punch is gradually deepening his interactions with the troop of monkeys!” the zoo wrote in a Feb. 6 post on X. “He’s getting groomed, playfully poking at others, getting scolded, and having all sorts of experiences every day, steadily learning how to live as a monkey within the troop!”
Punch’s zookeepers predicted this day would come
Back in February 2026, zookeeper Kosuke Shikano spoke to Reuters about Punch’s development. His assessment was measured but hopeful.
“I think there will come a day when he no longer needs his stuffed toy,” Shikano said.
The March 15 videos suggest that day may have arrived—or at least, it’s getting close.
Punch is socializing. He has a companion. He’s playing, interacting, building real bonds with living monkeys rather than relying solely on a plush substitute.
But the stuffed toy might be here to stay anyway. Punch still keeps it nearby, even as his social world expands.
If you want to follow what happens next, the Ichikawa City Zoo maintains an active presence on X, posting regular updates about Punch’s integration into the troop.
The videos from March 15 are all circulating from accounts that have been documenting his journey since the IKEA orangutan first appeared.
Punch’s lonesome days, it appears, are behind him.
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