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Step aside Moo Deng, because a new zoo animal has won the hearts of the internet. In case you’ve been living under a rock, people online are going bananas for a seven-month-old Japanese macaque named Punch after videos showing him being rejected by his mother went viral last week.
Since the rejection, Punch has been given a stuffed orangutan toy by zookeepers at Ichikawa zoo where he lives. Punch has won worldwide adoration mainly because people feel sorry for the baby monkey. The zoo has been posting updates of the macaque, with videos showing him playing alone, being hit by other monkeys and dragging his plushie around everywhere he goes.
So, what if you could catch the live version of all this monkey drama for yourself? Obviously, in London you wouldn’t be able to see Punch himself, but you can catch the same kind of monkey at a location very close to the capital.
London Zoo did have macaques until as recently as 2023, but according to the zoo’s most up-to-date stocklist (taken in 2025), it no longer has the primates in residence. If you do want to see macaques in London, your best bet is to visit Woburn Safari Park in Bedfordshire. Just an hour from London by train, Woburn is home to a troop of Barbary macaques. The hardy creatures can be spotted all year round as they can survive in both arid and freezing cold conditions. They can be found roaming freely in the ‘African Forest’ in the safari drive-through.
Did you see that London is getting the city’s ‘first’ floating park?
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