The Punch effect: Baby monkey's orange orangutan soft toy sold out
As the 7-month-old macaque monkey Punch goes viral, so has his pal, the orange orangutan soft toy. It is flying off the shelves globally.
The viral duo
As the photograph of the monkey from the Ichikawa City Zoo outside Tokyo surfaces online, he instantly becomes the internet’s favourite. His struggle in the zoo after being abandoned by his mother has reached across the globe; he also has a fan following.
Smile please
Many even flock to the zoo to catch a glimpse of him. While many in Japan plan a visit to the zoo, others across the globe look for his toy, which is reportedly out of stock in Japan and other countries.
Punch's pal goes off shelves
An interesting fact about the ‘DJUNGELSKOG soft toys collection’ is that it is an awareness programme run by the Swedish company “to highlight wild animals that are endangered due to human activities”. According to its website, “Martin Petri, who works with sustainability at IKEA, was in a rainforest in Borneo in 2016. It was hot and humid. The sound from surrounding wildlife resonated intensely in all directions. High up in a tree, he caught a glimpse of an orangutan dwelling – they were back.”
'Endangered due to human activities'
Both Punch and his pal are "endangered due to human activities." Though he has become the internet's favourite, the bigger matter is that the primates are victims of laundering due to their forced involvement in biomedical research globally. Macaque monkeys are used in lab experiments and are typically part of the penultimate and crucial round before human trials.
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