![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() He revealed he wanted to produce a creature that retained the strength of a chimpanzee but was able to talk. Given the name Oliver, it was reported that the ape was a human–chimpanzee hybrid that had less body hair than other animals but was much more intelligent.Īlthough it showed in a post-mortem that the hybrid had the same genetic makeup as any normal chimpanzee.Ī few years later, reports had emerged in the 1980s that experiments of human-chimpanzee crossbreeding had gone on in 1967 in the People's Republic of China.ĭr Ji Yongxiang, one of the scientists involved in restarting the project, spoke to the Wen Hui Boa newspaper about his aim for the project. The chimpanzee was four and a half feet tall and 125 pounds, and was said to have had 47 chromosomes, one less than apes and one more than humans.īiologist Ilya Ivanovich, led the 1920s project focused on cross-breeding apes and humans by using artificial insemination.Īfter the project was unsuccessful, the idea of developing a 'humanzee' didn't resurface until the 1970s when a 'mutant' chimp, who had human characteristics, was created. You can watch a 2007 video story of his life here, including when Ollie and Raisin were first brought together.Īnd here’s the first part of a documentary about him – with links to the other five parts.Oliver the Chimpanzee and South African animal handler Frank Burger before the press on Main New York City. Last Saturday morning, June 2nd, he was found in his favorite hammock, having passed away peacefully during the night. All the claims that had gone into his earlier exploitation were shown to be bogus.įor the next 16 years, Oliver lived comfortably at Primarily Primates and made friends with another chimp, Raisin, who gradually became his girlfriend from whom he would never be separated. When he arrived at Primarily Primates, a panel of new tests showed there was nothing genetically unusual about him – he was just a normal chimpanzee who happened to like walking upright. In 1996, Primarily Primates petitioned Buckshire to release Oliver, and they agreed.īy now in his mid-30s, Oliver had arthritis and was half blind. Although he was not used in medical experiments there, he just, quite literally, wasted away in the cage, his muscles atrophying until he developed uncontrollable trembling. In 1989 Ollie was sold to the Buckshire Corporation, a laboratory in Pennsylvania, where he lived in a small cage for the next nine years. At various times he was made into a stage attraction and dragged around on a chain. to a theme park in California until it closed … and to another one until it closed … and yet another … then to the Wild Animal Training Center until he was deemed aggressive. Perhaps, his owners suggested, he was a hybrid or a “missing link.”įor the next 30 years, Oliver was bounced from one miserable situation to the next – sold to a New York lawyer who took him to Japan for genetic testing in an attempt to prove he was “special” … to TV shows in Japan … back to the U.S. For the next few years he was exploited for the fact that he had a flatter face than most chimpanzees and tended to walk upright like a human. Oliver was captured in Africa as a two-year-old in the 1960s and sold to animal trainers in the U.S. Over the weekend, Oliver the chimpanzee passed away peacefully in his hammock at the Primarily Primates sanctuary in Texas. ![]()
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