Punch may look sweet with his plushie – but anthropomorphism can’t tell us what a wild animal is truly experiencing
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Standing in line at Ikea’s click and collect service to pick up a large plush orangutan, a wave of fatigue washes over me.
Not only because I have been in transit for almost 24 hours after a series of flight delays, and this is my last stop before collapsing in a heap on my living room floor, but also for the reason I, and so many others, have made this journey.
It’s to secure the toy that people on the internet believe has brought comfort to an abandoned monkey named Punch at a Japanese zoo, who has gone viral for reasons largely unclear to me.
