Jack (chacma baboon)
Jack (died 1890) was a chacma baboon, who attained a measure of fame for acting as an assistant to a disabled railroad signalman in South Africa.[1]
History
Jack was the pet and assistant of paraplegic signalman James Wide, who worked for the Cape Town-Port Elizabeth Railway service. James "Jumper" Wide had been known for jumping between railcars prior to an accident where he fell and lost both of his legs.[2] To assist in performing his duties, Wide purchased the baboon named "Jack" and trained him to push his wheelchair and to operate the railways signals under supervision.
An official investigation was initiated after a concerned member of the public reported that a baboon was observed changing railway signals at Uitenhage near Port Elizabeth.[3]
After initial skepticism, the railway decided to officially employ Jack once his job competency was verified. The baboon was paid twenty cents a day, and a half-bottle of beer each week. It is widely reported that in his nine years of employment with the railroad, Jack never made a mistake.
After nine years of duty, Jack died of tuberculosis in 1890.[3] His skull is in the collection of the Albany Museum in Grahamstown.
Notes and references
- ↑ Morris 2003, p. 242.
- ↑ Williams, Michael (2 August 2012). "Stranger Than Fiction: Jack the Signalman". Knoxville Daily Sun. Retrieved 2014-10-27.
- 1 2 Cheney & Seyfarth 2008, p. 31.
- Cheney, Dorothy L.; Seyfarth, Robert M. (2008). The Primate Mind in Myth and Legend. University of Chicago Press. ISBN 0226102440.
- Morris, Simon Conway (2003). Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-139-44080-6.