Oliver, the bipedal chimpanzee

[anotheranon]

I knew I discussed this with someone at K.Zoo, and I've likely mentioned it elsewhere as well - imagine my surprise when cryptomundo coughed up this article this morning.

Long story short: Oliver is a 32 year old chimpanzee who has always walked upright (there are a lot of photos at the link - more than I've ever seen anywhere else). He made the rounds of circuses as a "baby bigfoot" or some such back in the day; tests later proved he was a genetically ordinary chimpanzee who happens to walk upright, for whatever reason. He's in the news again because his host animal sanctuary is falling into disrepair.

So.. not a Bigfoot, but interesting nonetheless. The person/people I was discussing this with over the weekend suggested that long exposure to humans caused Oliver to imitate their upright stance, and I suppose that's possible (Disclaimer: I am not a zoologist/primatologist), even though IIRC ape physiology would make it unlikely as the head is set too far forward on the spine to make it practical - perhaps standing upright for so long has deformed Oliver's spine? I'd love to get Jane Goodall's take on this (yes, I know, that's what Google is for but I've gotta go to work :P)

Comments

[timcharmorbien.livejournal.com]

I do know a lot of people are interested in Oliver as a possible clue as to how our ancesters started walking upright, though I think spine shape vs. buttocks is a chicken-or-egg debate - - which came first? Or did they happen together?

And this is almost completely unrelated, but I found an interesting tidbit: Cheetah, the chimpanzee that was in the Johny Weismuller Tarzan films in the 30s and 40s, recently had a 74th birthday celebration. I never knew chimps lived much past 50, so I found that interesting.