Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Jen Maravegias | News | July 10, 2026
Last year, an unlikely internet star was born on Monkey Mountain, an enclosure inside the Ichikawa City Zoological and Botanical Garden in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan. Panchi-kun, the Japanese macaque, was abandoned by his mother but quickly adopted by the World Wide Web.
Over this past winter, we all watched as the zoo attempted to integrate wee baby Panchi into the troop on Monkey Mountain. When all of those attempts failed, Baby Panchi found out he had a lot of internet aunts and uncles willing to go to war with a troop of monkeys over their treatment of the orphaned baby.
Whether he knew about his international army of supporters or not, Panchi was a resilient little guy. And we were all inspired by him clinging to his plushy orangutan friend and the zoo keeper dedicated to his care.
Poor baby Panchi seemed so lonely. There weren't many other babies for him to play or bond with. And so many of the adult monkeys were mean or indifferent. It didn't make much sense to us humans, but we put our faith in the zookeepers to keep Panchi safe and to ensure his relationships with the other members of his troop were developing properly.
Good news came in the zoo's most recent newsletter. The reason Panchi had so few playmates last year was that the zoo had put breeding restrictions on its Japanese macaque population. But there were no breeding restrictions this year. There are 11 babies in the troop, and now Panchi is a big brother and has plenty of playmates!
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The addition of so many new babies into the troop has also made it easier for Panchi to be accepted by troop elders.
We can all breathe a sigh of relief knowing Panchi is safe and happy. Hopefully Baby Panchi will never be lonely again.
