Sept. 10, 2026

Punch the Monkey!

Show Notes
Transcript

Johnny Mac shares five good news stories: Punch, a Japanese zoo monkey abandoned by his mother and rejected by other monkeys, went viral with a stuffed toy and now comforts and protects younger monkeys struggling to adjust, acting like a big brother. In England, 76-year-old John fought a parking company for over two years over a 90p fee after a machine printed only part of his plate; a judge dismissed the company’s £277 claim, awarded John £289.50 plus expenses, and he advised drivers to keep tickets and records. Nevada wildlife officials hired Karelian Bear Dogs Badger and Banjo to chase black bears away from neighborhoods as the population rebounded to about 700. WWF reported monarch butterflies wintering in Mexico rose to about 7.2 acres in 2025–2026, up from 4.4, though still far below 1990s levels. NASA extended Voyager 2’s life by powering down integrated systems to save energy.

00:10 Punch the Monkey Hero
01:18 Ninety Cent Ticket Win
02:56 Dogs Chase Black Bears
03:57 Monarch Butterfly Rebound
05:09 Voyager 2 Power Save

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Hey there, I'm Johnny Mac with five good news stories.

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A monkey rejected by his mother is now caring for

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other baby monkeys. Yeah, a monkey became an internet favorite

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after being abandoned by mom. Has a new role, looking

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after other young monkeys. Punch the monkey! Lives at a

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zoo in Japan. Shortly after he was born, mom abandoned him.

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Keepers gave the little monkey a stuffed toy for comfort.

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And pictures of Punch the monkey went viral. You may

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recall Punch the monkey. They tried introducing Punch to the

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other monkeys, but those guys rejected poor Punch too. Punch

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could be seen sitting by himself with his stuffed animal friend.

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But six months later, Punch's story has a much happier turn.

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According to the zoo, Punch has been spending his time

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with younger monkeys who are having trouble adjusting to the group.

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It sounds like the group has a problem. Videos show

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Punch cuddling the babies, grooming them, and approaching new arrivals.

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He's also become protective in one instance. Punch reportedly spotted

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a crow hanging around near one of the babies and

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stayed beside the younger monkey until the crow went away.

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The babies have become attached to Punch themselves, seeking out

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Punch when they wake up and treating him almost like

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a big brother. One social media user said Punch became

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what he once needed. Gotta love this guy. A man

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won a two-year court battle over a parking ticket. How

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much was the parking ticket? 90 cents. This guy's 76.

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He lives in England. He spent more than two years

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fighting a parking company over a 90-cent parking fee. John

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parked at the Foreman Center car park. He and his

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wife went shopping. He paid 90 pence for an hour

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of parking and entered his vehicle registration in the machine.

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When the ticket came out, it displayed only the final

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four characters of his license plate. He figured that was

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on purpose. He left 36 minutes later, well within the

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hour he had paid for it. Two weeks later, he

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gets a ticket saying he hadn't properly paid for parking

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and owed 100 pounds. That's about $ 135, reduced to 60

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pounds if he paid quickly. He had kept that ticket.

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He also had his bank statement showing the payment, so

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he went to the company and figured that'd be the

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end of it. The company rejected his appeal, but offered

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to settle for 20 pounds. He said no. He said

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paying the 20 pounds is still a 2,000% increase. I'd

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already paid for the parking. I was annoyed that they

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were seeking to extort money from me. He fought with

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them for two and a half years. He kept answering

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every letter and preserving his paperwork. He even told the

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company he was willing to go to court and would

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counterclaim his own costs. Civil enforcement took him to court,

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seeking 277 pounds. But Deputy District Judge Chan dismissed the

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parking company's claim and helped John's counterclaim over the anxiety, intimidation,

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The company was ordered to pay John 289 pounds and

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50 pence, plus court expenses and 4 pounds 50 pence

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for the parking he had to pay for when he

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went to court. Love that. His advice to other drivers?

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Save the parking ticket, save your receipts, save the letters.

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Some dogs have a new job. Their job? Scare the bears.

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Nevada wildlife officials have hired two dogs to deal with

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some black bears that got a little too comfortable around humans.

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The dogs are Badger and Banjo. Their job? Chase the bears.

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Badger and Banjo are Karelian bear dogs, which sounds like

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something out of Star Wars, a breed traditionally used for

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hunting and working around large animals. The Nevada Department of

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Wildlife uses them to teach black bears that hanging around

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humans is a bad idea. Nevada's black bear population has

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come back. By the 80s, habitat loss and illegal hunting

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had reduced the population to around 30 bears. Now there

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are around 700 black bears in western Nevada, which is

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good news, except for when the bears get a little

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too close to the humans. That's where Badger and Banjo

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come in. The dogs work with wildlife biologists, responding to

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bears hiding underneath houses, entering buildings, or repeatedly hanging around neighborhoods.

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Wildlife biologist Carl said the bears' experiences for the most

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part around people have been positive. We're just trying to

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give them a bad experience around people. The long-term solution

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is to get humans to stop accidentally feeding the bears

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by leaving garbage, food, or other attractants where the animals

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can reach them. Good news for monarch butterflies. You guys

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had a good year. After years of steep declines, the

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population of monarch butterflies spending the winter in Mexico appears

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to have gone up. That's good. It had been going down.

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I've been watching this for years. According to the World

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Wildlife Fund's annual survey of monarch butterflies, monarch butterflies occupied

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about 7.2 acres of forest during the winter of 2025

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to 2026, that up from the previous winter's 4.4 acres.

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If you do the math there, that's an increase of

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roughly 64% in a single year. If you go back

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to 2023, the area has more than tripled from Valerie

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is a conservation researcher. Say that three times fast. You're

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listening to Take Six right now. That is not an

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easy sentence to say. Anyway, Valerie said the increase could

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represent anywhere from a few million to tens of millions

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more monarch butterflies. Scientists aren't ready to declare the monarch

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completely recovered. 30 years ago, monarch colonies covered close to

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45 acres of Mexican forest. So if you compare this

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to the 90s, the population is still down anywhere between

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80 and 90%. And good news for Voyager 2, NASA

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scientists figured out how to give it another year of

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life nearly 50 years after Voyager 2 left the Earth.

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The problem is Voyager 2 is slowly running out of electricity.

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Voyager 2 launched in 1977 and gets its power from

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radioisotope thermoelectric generators, which turn heat from decaying plutonium into electricity,

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but the plutonium doesn't produce as much heat as it

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once does. Voyager loses about 4 watts of available power

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every year. Doesn't sound like a lot when you're a

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spacecraft billions of miles from home. Every watt matters. NASA

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engineers have already been shutting down instruments and other equipment

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to stretch out Voyager's remaining power for as long as possible.

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Now they've figured out they can switch off some deeply

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integrated systems while making sure Voyager stays warm enough to operate.

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It was a risky enough plan that engineers gave the

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planet a nickname, the Big Bang. And it worked! Without

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the change, NASA figured they would have had to shut

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down another scientific instrument before the end of the year.

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Since 2024, engineers have already turned off two science instruments

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on each of the Voyager spacecraft. They will now do

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a similar power-saving operation on Voyager 1, which is even

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farther from the Earth. And eventually, the Voyagers will go silent,

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do no word on what happened to Voyager 6, which

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disappeared in what they used to call a black hole.

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If you got my Star Trek reference, you got it.

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If you didn't, there is no Voyager 6. Just move on.

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Just trust me. That was for the Trekkies. And those

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are your five good news stories for today. Have a

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great day.