2 US nationals arrested after Punch The Monkey zoo stunt in Ichikawa
Two US nationals were arrested after a stunt at punch the monkey’s enclosure at Ichikawa City Zoo in Japan, where one man allegedly jumped into the shared area while the other filmed it. Police said the two men denied the allegations, and officers said no monkeys were injured.
Ichikawa City Zoo files report
Ichikawa City Zoo said on Monday that it had filed a damage report with police and was putting countermeasures in place to prevent a repeat. Those steps include expanding the enclosure’s viewing restriction area and installing intrusion-prevention nets, while requests from YouTubers to film there are temporarily on hold.
The zoo is also considering a full ban on filming around the monkey enclosure. An Ichikawa Police official said the men did not get close to the animals and were quickly apprehended by zoo workers.
Punch and the online attention
One man claimed to be a 24-year-old college student and the other claimed to be a 27-year-old singer. The two were arrested on suspicion of forcible obstruction of business, according to local media, after footage purportedly from Sunday morning showed a person in a costume and carrying a stuffed toy jumping over a fence and into the enclosure.
The costume was said to be promoting a cryptocurrency, and the person was later led out by a zookeeper. Punch, a nine-month-old macaque, first drew attention online after being spotted hugging a stuffed toy orangutan given to him by keepers after he was rejected by his mother. The zoo has since said Punch is integrating with the other macaques, with recent updates showing him being hugged by other monkeys and grooming them.
The arrest comes after other trespass cases at animal enclosures drew attention online, including a man fined $300 last month for breaking into the enclosure of Moo Deng at a zoo in Thailand. For visitors and film crews at Ichikawa City Zoo, the immediate change is narrower access around Punch’s enclosure, with a possible filming ban still under review.
