Good morning and welcome to Kid News. I'm Kim. Today is Thursday, February 26, 2026. And we begin with what appears to be a happy ending for a tiny monkey stealing hearts all over the world. Punch is a seven-month-old Japanese macaqueh. Who had trouble connecting with other monkeys at the Ichikawa Zoo near Tokyo, Japan. Zookeepers bought him a stuffed orangutang

from IKEA that he instantly bonded with, cuddling and dragging it with him everywhere he went.

Video of Punch and his plushy went viral with fans going bananas and companies like United Airlines

even weighing in with memes of their own. According to ABC News, Punch's plush pal sold out instantly at IKEA, with resale prices

skyrocketing to more than $350.

As for Punch's social predicament, Zookeepers say he's now playing with other baby monkeys

and even participating in grooming activities,

a sign that he's finally part of the troop and that sometimes making new friends just takes time.

A mother-daughter pair has uncovered the world's largest coral colony. According to Newsweek,

Jan Pope and Sophie Kalkowski Pope made the discovery while diving

off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia from their family vessel. Sophie, who works for the

conservation group's citizens of the reef, said in a statement, I knew right from the minute we dropped

in that it was something special. The coral colony is reported to be about 360 feet long

and has an approximate footprint of 42,765 square feet. For comparison, the largest individual coral

colonies of the same species are typically only a third as big. Scientists are now examining the reef to learn how such a vast

coral structure has managed to grow and endure, especially in the face of rising ocean temperatures.

Frosty has some serious competition. What started as a pile of powder at a home in Shirley, Massachusetts, has literally snowballed

into a tourist attraction. Katie Allerud says her husband, Eric, was a bit stir-crazy after

the birth of their daughter last November and began building a snowman who they've since named

Parker in honor of the street they live on. Thanks to strategic hosing to keep him frozen, January storms, and this week's blizzard,

Parker now stands a whopping 23 feet high, 25 feet wide at the base, and is decked out in lights.

Katie says Parker's becoming such a spectacle he's stopping traffic.

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