Hey, I'm Flora Lickman, and you're listening to Science Friday.

You may have noticed that primate news has been popping off.

Tonight, the baby monkey who has captured the attention and the hearts of the world.

The viral star, Punch the monkey.

Punches a macaque about seven months old living in a zoo in Japan. He was rejected by his mother, so zookeepers gave him a stuffed animal substitute.

Pictures of punch snuggling with his stuff he went viral, families flock to the zoo to see him, and now Punch updates like whether the monkey has a girlfriend or if he was bullied

are a regular feature of ABC news. Why? Why do so many people identify with this little monkey

and how do primate researchers manage that impulse? Here to talk punch primate feelings

and our feelings about primates is Dr. Christine Webb,

who studies primates and teaches at New York University. She's also the author of The Arrogant Ape,

The Myth of Human Exceptionalism, and Why It Matters. Christine, thanks for talking with us today.

It's a pleasure to be here. Your primatologist, is this punch story exciting for you or very annoying?

Well, I've been forced to pay attention to it because I teach undergraduates and their interest

in it has gotten me a bit interested because they are so curious about Punch, how he's doing, what he's

feeling. So for that reason, I guess I'm, I'm okay with it. Okay, with it. Well, I mean,

millions and millions of people are way more than okay with it. They're like obsessed with

it with Punch. Why do you think people can't get enough of this story?

Well, as our closest living relatives, other primates, you know, they've always kind of straddled this supposed boundary between human and animal. And so many of their behaviors are

identifiable to us, right? They have similar body plans. They're

visually dominant. And they're a highly social species with very complex social relationships and group

structures. And I think it's our fascination with this latter point, this complex sociality,

is one of the reasons why Punch strikes a chord so much with us.

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