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Baby Monkey Punch Acclimatizing, Making New friends at Japan zoo

A seven month-old male Japanese macaque monkey named Punch, who was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, sits with a stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
A seven month-old male Japanese macaque monkey named Punch, who was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, sits with a stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
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Baby Monkey Punch Acclimatizing, Making New friends at Japan zoo

A seven month-old male Japanese macaque monkey named Punch, who was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, sits with a stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)
A seven month-old male Japanese macaque monkey named Punch, who was abandoned by his mother shortly after birth, sits with a stuffed orangutan toy at Ichikawa City Zoo and Botanical Gardens in Ichikawa, Chiba Prefecture on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

Clutching a monkey plushie, Eliete Ikeda screamed "Punch!" as she caught sight of the underdog baby macaque still drawing crowds of photo-hungry visitors to a Japanese zoo weeks after he shot to stardom.

Seven-month-old Punch was abandoned by his mother and became an internet sensation after clips of him clinging to a plush orangutan toy for comfort -- and seemingly being roughhoused by fellow monkeys -- proliferated online last month.

His plight at Ichikawa City Zoo outside Tokyo has since spawned a dedicated fanbase under the hashtag #HangInTherePunch, leading to the local facility being flooded with an unprecedented number of visitors, including foreign tourists.

"I think it's the relatability of it," 30-year-old Jon Frigillana of the United States told AFP when asked why the monkey is tugging at the heartstrings of so many.

Hand-raised in an artificial environment immediately after his birth in July, the small, dark-furred macaque is gradually acclimatizing, the zoo said, no longer clutching the plushie all the time. He's also making a few friends.

"He's going through a lot, but seeing him come through adversity... It's nice to see strength in that way," Frigillana said.

And with wars around the world dominating his newsfeed, "in this day and age, it's heartwarming to see" Punch, he added.

Ikeda, meanwhile, said seeing the "kawaii" -- or "cute" -- Punch was a "present" during a birthday trip to the zoo to celebrate turning 53.

"Happy birthday for me," she said excitedly.

Lately about 2,000 to 3,000 people a day have been flocking to the facility, roughly 10 times the usual number during the winter off-season, zoo official Takashi Yasunaga told AFP.

One local taxi driver said that "around a half" of pedestrians he drives past on the way to the zoo now appear to be non-Japanese -- an "unprecedented" sight in his typically quiet neighborhood.

"Some foreign tourists get in, and with big smiles on their faces, just tell me: 'Punch'" to convey their destination, said the driver, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to media.

- Rules of monkey society -

But the attention showered on the zoo hasn't all been positive.

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) called Punch's initial predicament a reminder of the cruelty faced by animals in captivity.

Widely circulated online clips focusing on a few pitiable interactions with other monkeys have exposed the zoo to criticisms, including from Europe over his state in enclosure.

In the strictly hierarchical society of Japanese macaques, it is not uncommon for higher-ranked individuals to "discipline and scold" newcomers in behaviors that are "fundamentally different from abuse in human society," Yasunaga, the zoo official, said.

"We're watching with patience and care as Punch gets trained in the troop and learns rules of monkey society," he said.

On AFP's recent visit, Punch was spotted playing alone with chains and branches on the floor of his enclosure, and occasionally approaching others -- only to be ignored -- before going back to his plushie.

"We hope he will eventually let go of his stuffed toy and become bigger in size and indistinguishable from others," Yasunaga said.

"Such a sight might bring a bit of sadness to many of our visitors, but his growth into a full-fledged member of the troop is our ultimate hope."

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Varieties

Genome Study Shows What Made the Extinct Ice Age Cave Lion Unique

The remains of a frozen female cave lion cub named Sparta, about 32,000 years old and recovered in northeastern Siberia, are pictured in Yakutsk, Russia, in this photograph from 2018, obtained on June 3, 2026. Love Dalen/Handout via REUTERS
The remains of a frozen female cave lion cub named Sparta, about 32,000 years old and recovered in northeastern Siberia, are pictured in Yakutsk, Russia, in this photograph from 2018, obtained on June 3, 2026. Love Dalen/Handout via REUTERS
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Genome Study Shows What Made the Extinct Ice Age Cave Lion Unique

The remains of a frozen female cave lion cub named Sparta, about 32,000 years old and recovered in northeastern Siberia, are pictured in Yakutsk, Russia, in this photograph from 2018, obtained on June 3, 2026. Love Dalen/Handout via REUTERS
The remains of a frozen female cave lion cub named Sparta, about 32,000 years old and recovered in northeastern Siberia, are pictured in Yakutsk, Russia, in this photograph from 2018, obtained on June 3, 2026. Love Dalen/Handout via REUTERS

The cave lion was one of the biggest cats to ever live, prowling a huge swathe of territory from Western Europe across Siberia and into North America and hunting large prey - and perhaps even people - before going extinct around the end of the Ice Age.

New genome research reveals what made this big cat unique and how it differed from the modern lion, its smaller cousin, though the two species did sporadically interbreed. The cave lion, whose scientific name is Panthera spelaea, died out roughly 14,000 years ago.

The researchers compared the genomes of 12 cave lions that lived from 17,000 to 148,000 years ago in places such as Russia, Austria and Canada's Yukon territory with the genomes of 20 modern lions. Cave lion DNA was extracted mostly from bones and teeth, but also from soft tissue in well-preserved frozen cubs from Siberia, where cold conditions helped preserve ancient genetic material. One of these, a female called Sparta, is among the best Ice Age specimens ever found.

"We show that cave lions were not simply Ice Age versions of modern ⁠lions, but ⁠instead represented a highly distinct evolutionary lineage," said evolutionary geneticist Love Dalén of the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a collaboration between Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History, senior author of the study published in the journal Cell.

According to Reuters, the study showed that the evolutionary lineages of the two species diverged probably around 1.7 million years ago during the Pleistocene Epoch. Each species possessed unique genetic variants that likely adapted them to their different habitats and behaviors. These genetic differences related to growth, vision, brain function and circulatory development.

The cave lion, which despite its name did not actually live in caves, was significantly larger and built more robustly than the modern lion. It dwelled in colder ⁠climes, favoring the open grasslands and tundras of northern Eurasia and northwestern North America. This vanished ecosystem, called the mammoth steppe in a nod to its most prominent inhabitant, resembled today's African savanna but with frigid temperatures.

"The cave lion was absolutely an apex predator, and as such filled an incredibly important and impactful ecological role," said evolutionary geneticist and study lead author David Stanton of Cardiff University in Wales. "They were one of the most widespread carnivores to ever live."

Among its probable prey were woolly mammoths - most likely young or elderly individuals - as well as woolly rhinoceroses, antelope, reindeer, horses and bison. Humans also dwelled in these regions in the Ice Age's later stages.

"While there is no clear evidence that cave lions preyed on humans, it seems highly likely that they occasionally did so. Cave paintings show that Ice Age people were highly familiar with these animals. They are often depicted with remarkable accuracy, and are usually shown without the large mane characteristic of modern male lions," Dalén said.

Other predators sharing the landscape included wolves, cave hyenas, ⁠brown bears, cave bears and ⁠the scimitar-toothed cat Homotherium. The powerful saber-toothed cat Smilodon was a more southern species, but may have come into contact with cave lions in the Yukon and Alaska regions during brief periods of Pleistocene climate warming.

The modern lion did not venture as far north as the cave lion's usual domain. But the study showed that the two species came into contact at particularly cold stretches of the Ice Age when growing continental ice sheets and expansion of the steppe tundra brought cave lions southward, causing their ranges to overlap.

"Climate appears to dictate the level of interbreeding that we see between these species," Stanton said.

The researchers said this interbreeding may have occurred in places like modern-day Iran. That region once was home to a sizable population of modern lions, though they are now largely restricted to Africa.

The warming at the end of the Ice Age contributed to the extinctions of many of the large Pleistocene animals, or megafauna, with human hunting presenting another destabilizing factor.

"Cave lions, like the rest of the megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene, were under a huge amount of pressure due to rapid changes in climate combined with increasing human population densities. The extinction of cave lions falls into the general pattern that we see of mass extinction of megafauna at this time, but for reasons that we don't completely understand," Stanton said.

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From Poplars to Pistachios, Afghans Rediscover the Value of Trees

A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
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From Poplars to Pistachios, Afghans Rediscover the Value of Trees

A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP
A forest near Qargha lake in Paghman district, Kabul province. Wakil KOHSAR / AFP

Under the shade of recently planted poplars in northeastern Afghanistan, village leader Ghulam Ali Poya is proud to see residents rediscover the value of trees after years of wartime deforestation.

"There were forests of pistachio trees," he told AFP, gesturing to the bare mountains that surround Char Bagh's mud homes.

"During the conflicts and the civil war, they were destroyed; no one could stop the logging."

From the 1979 Soviet invasion until the fall of the first Taliban government in the early 2000s, "around 50 percent of Afghanistan's forest cover was lost", said Mohammad Nasir Shalizi, a researcher at North Carolina State University.

In eastern Afghanistan, timber smuggling to Pakistan drove massive logging, while in the more arid central and northern "pistachio belt", residents used wood for heating and cooking.

But in the last two decades, deforestation has slowed "substantially", Shalizi said.

Forest cover has increased 35 percent nationwide since 2011, according to the National Statistics and Information Authority, though just 2.5 percent of Afghanistan was forested in 2025 and cover is still shrinking in some areas.

But experts say communities are working to improve forest cover. Both the US-backed government, in place until 2021, and the current Taliban administration have supported tree-planting campaigns.

In Char Bagh, the Aga Khan Development Network funded a kilometer-square grove which includes poplars, paulownias, pomegranates and persimmons.

- 'A model' -

The land belongs to farmer Bas Begum Ahmadi, who hopes to sell fruit and homemade jam, but it is also open to the community of 350 families.

"Having these trees makes me feel good; my environment is green, and we breathe fresh air," said the 45-year-old, who tends the trees with her husband to support their four children.

This "micro-forest" follows Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki's principles: dense planting of mostly local species of varying heights.

It is noticeably cooler than the surrounding bare fields and offers twigs for stove fuel and leaves that feed livestock.

Micro-forests "restore ecosystems, improve soil fertility, help climate resilience, and support community livelihood," said Parisa Malikzada, Afghanistan agriculture coordinator for the organization, which has planted 500 micro-forests in seven provinces.

Poya said the forest, next to a river, prevents soil erosion during flooding and offers "a model for people".

"Everyone comes to have a look, and they'd like to have one too," he told AFP.

In Afghanistan, where many places are hard to reach and the state has limited funds, community-based forest management is the most effective approach to reforestation, experts told AFP.

- Penalties for tree cutting -

Afghan authorities have set a goal of planting 200 million trees between 2023 and 2030, relying partly on NGOs, the United Nations and the private sector.

"Last year, the target was eight million, but in the end, 17 million were planted," said Rohullah Amin, head of climate change at the General Environmental Protection Agency, where he has worked for more than a decade.

This year's goal is nine million.

Challenges include selecting native, climate-adapted species, water scarcity, and livestock damaging saplings.

Some forests have struggled with "lack of care or water", Amin acknowledged, including one site where drought killed 70 percent of the planted pines.

In some places, tribal councils protect forests and penalize residents who damage them. Elsewhere, "forest management associations" run by elected villagers and farmers have been set up.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization has helped them plant five million trees since 2019, according to its climate change chief, Muhammad Safi.

- Birds coming back -

The government created nurseries to grow local species in places such as Paghman on state land on Kabul's outskirts.

Head gardener Mahmood Khwajazada carefully tends almond, pine nut and walnut trees, as well as deodar cedars, for distribution nationwide.

"Our Prophet said, 'Even if you have only one day left, plant a tree," he told AFP.

In Charikar, northeastern Afghanistan, where thousands of saplings were planted this year along streets, in parks and on hillsides, the municipality sees "a change" in people's attitude towards trees.

Ahmad Khalid Sabiri, a resident, said he volunteered to help plant "because it's beneficial for the environment".

Experts said more work is needed to protect the remaining old growth, as well as planting in forests rather than just in urban areas.

"There's good work happening, but far more needs to be done" to address the impact of global warming, according to Apoorva Oza, head of climate change at the Aga Khan Foundation.

In Char Bagh, Poya sees a beneficial effect of trees in biodiversity, with the return of long-absent birds.

"Don't build a cage for a bird; plant a tree near your house," he said.

Varieties

Nepali Climber Alive after Six Days Missing on Everest

This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
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Nepali Climber Alive after Six Days Missing on Everest

This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP
This photograph taken on May 20, 2026, shows mountaineers on Everest. Furte Sherpa / AFP

A Nepali climbing guide who went missing on Mount Everest for six days and was feared dead has been found alive after crawling back to Base Camp, officials told AFP on Thursday.

The experienced Hillary Dawa Sherpa vanished on the upper reaches of the world's highest mountain early on May 30.

He was found on Thursday morning close to Base Camp by the Sagarmatha Pollution Control Committee (SPCC), a Nepali team that helps set routes on Everest and clean up waste left behind.

"He was crawling down," Pemba Sherpa of 8K Expeditions, which was overseeing search and rescue efforts, told AFP.

"A helicopter has been sent to bring him to a hospital in Kathmandu."

Climber Chris Thrall, a former British Royal Marine, said he successfully summited the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) peak with Sherpa around 5:00 pm on May 29.

He posted a video message on Instagram on Wednesday morning what he thought was the death of Sherpa.

He called Sherpa an "absolute gentle giant of a man and a true 'tiger of the mountains'", in a post that assumed the worst.

Thrall described how on May 30 he had begun to descend from Camp Four -- at around 7,950m -- and just below the low-oxygen "death zone".

He said that as he descended, Sherpa stopped.

"He sat down for a rest with his backpack, these guys carry huge loads," he said.

"And I turned and I said, 'Hillary, are you okay, brother?' He said, 'Yes, yes, fine Chris, please go, go!' This is nothing new, you know, I'd go ahead, he'd go ahead."

As Thrall went down he found a Polish climber who was struggling after running out of supplementary oxygen and had suffered frostbite.

"It had been a long summit push. What should have been five days to the summit and back took us 11 days, that's how challenging the conditions were," said Thrall.

"So, do I go back for Sherpa, who's probably going to rock up and be fine, as he has done hundreds of times before?" he added.

"Or do I help my fellow climber, who's got no oxygen, frostbite in his fingers, and obviously you're never far off hypothermia up there?"

Thrall described tough conditions, sharing his oxygen cylinder with the Pole as they descended, taking 11 hours to get to Camp Three. It would usually take two hours.

He said: "I realized we had a really serious situation."

Search teams set out to find Sherpa but he was not seen again until Thursday morning, having made his way down on his own.

The climb was one of the last of the season, meaning that there were few other mountaineers on the peak.

At least five people have died this season -- two Indians and three Nepali climbers involved in Everest preparations.

More than one thousand climbers reached the summit of Everest this season, according to initial tallies by Nepali officials, making it the busiest season on record.