Punch’s plight sparked sympathy online and created a devoted fanbase who began posting updates about the monkey using the hashtag #HangInTherePunch.

The baby monkey has been raised in an artificial environment since it was born in July, and began training to rejoin the herd last month.

His situation started to improve this month, when a zookeeper at the Ichikawa City Zoo near Tokyo posted that he was gradually integrating into society, “jokingly poking others and getting scolded.”

More than 100 visitors gathered around the zoo’s monkey enclosure on Friday, eagerly taking photos and shouting “Good luck!” as Punch tried to approach the rest of the squad.

“We’ve been here since this morning. We rarely come to the zoo, but we wanted to meet the cute Punch,” said Sayaka Takimoto, 32, who drove two hours with her husband to see the monkeys.

The couple said they found Punch’s social media posts of him carrying around a stuffed animal “adorable.”

“She was so cute that I had to come and see her,” said another visitor who gave her name as Yoko.

“I looked up his photo beforehand so I could recognize him,” the 50-year-old told AFP.

“I’m a little sad because he’s growing up so fast, but I feel relieved when I see him making new friends.”