Social climber: Punch the monkey starts to outgrow his Ikea plushie

Punch the monkey climbs on the back of another Japanese macaque in their playground at the Ichikawa city zoo in Tokyo. Photograph: Hiro Komae/AP

Punch, a baby macaque that stole the hearts of animal lovers around the world, is outgrowing his Ikea djungelskog plushie that comforted him after he was initially rejected by his mother and other monkeys at a zoo in Japan.

Images of the seven-month-old dragging around a toy bigger than him drew attention to the residents of Ichikawa city zoo near Tokyo. When other monkeys shooed the baby away, Punch rushed back to the toy orangutan, hugging it for comfort.