Article Authors:
- Sarah E. Turner | Associate Professor, Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University
- Brogan M. Stewart | PhD Candidate in Environmental Science, Concordia University
- Megan M. Joyce | PhD Student in the Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University
- Mikaela Gerwing | Wildlife Conservation Biologist and PhD Student, Concordia University
Intro:
Little Punch, a seven-month-old Japanese macaque living in the Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, has captured hearts on the internet. Abandoned by his mother in the first few days of his life and raised by the keepers at the zoo, he has had some trouble integrating into the group of around 60 Japanese macaques.
The keepers gave him a stuffed orangutan, which he carries with him — grooming its plushy fur the way monkeys usually care for one another. Some monkeys in the group were pushing Punch away, dragging him and reacting negatively to him. The internet is demanding to know why. And why would his mother abandon him?
As primate researchers who have spent thousands of hours scientifically observing Japanese monkeys like Punch, we wanted to provide a bit of Japanese monkey-world context.
TLDR: They don’t know
They also touch on possible reasons for a pretty small percentage of the article
A more accurate title would have been: Punch was cute, learn more about macaques
On reasons: In captivity, 7,7% of mothers, primarily first-time or low-ranking, abandon their offspring. This may be caused by lack of experience of parenting due to not being raised by macaques themselves and/or stress of living in captivity. Fathers do not typically raise babies, so Punch ended up alone.
Humans rescued the abandoned baby macaque, but now they reintegrate it to the pack so it could learn communication within the species and integrate.
Now, complete.
