Oliver the Humanzee - Half chimpanzee half human?

 Oliver the Humanzee

When Oliver first appeared to the public, the public was shocked by his very human-like appearance. Not only that, his ability is practically extraordinary for a chimpanzee. Many believe that Oliver is the "Missing Link" between humans and chimpanzees or hybrid creatures, so he is nicknamed Humanzee (from the words human and chimpanzee).

Of course, that assumption is not true. However, there is no denying that Oliver may be the chimpanzee that has caught the attention of researchers interested in his characteristics.

If you're a scientist, you might also be interested in Oliver. Take a look, generally, chimpanzees have faces like this:

However, Oliver had this kind of face. 

When you see his face, I'm sure you'll agree with me that Oliver is the most authoritative chimpanzee we've ever seen!

 Oliver was born in 1958 in Congo, Africa. At the age of two, she was taken by chimpanzee trainers Frank and Janet Berger to New Jersey, United States.

 The Bergers were so intrigued by Oliver's unusual physique that they decided to take him to America. Berger even strongly believes that Oliver is not a pure chimpanzee, but a hybrid between an ape and a human.

 Oliver's face is flatter than other chimpanzees. He has a slightly bald head with a smaller nose. This difference makes Oliver always ostracized by other chimpanzees.

Since childhood, Oliver has had the habit of walking on two legs. This is different from the common chimpanzee, which walks on its legs and arms. Even if a chimpanzee were taught to walk on two legs, they would still have difficulty because of the structure of their claws.

He also never walked on his knuckles like other chimpanzees.

 He likes watching television and smoking, just like humans.

 In fact, that's not all, according to Janet Berger, Oliver prefers a woman (human) over a female chimpanzee.

 Janet told the Discovery Channel that when Oliver was 16 years old, he became interested in Janet. This is evidenced by Oliver's habit of climbing Janet's body and trying to have sex with her (yup, you read that right).

 The Berger couple who saw this habit felt threatened, so they decided to sell the masher chimpanzee to someone else.

 In 1977, Oliver changed hands with Ralph Helfer, owner of an amusement park, Enchanted Village in Buena Park, California. Oliver is hired at the amusement park as an attraction chimpanzee. 

When the amusement park went bankrupt, Oliver continued to be exhibited by Helfer through other means. At that time, the media and the public began to be shocked by its existence. Los Angeles Time once wrote a long review about Oliver. They even speculate that Oliver may be a subspecies of chimpanzee or the missing link that evolutionists have been searching for.

Not long after, Oliver's fame began to spread worldwide. He has gone from being an ordinary attraction chimpanzee to a celebrity primate that is known everywhere.

Oliver's fame even reached the Asian continent. One day, Oliver appeared and was tested on Japanese television, watched by 26 million viewers. Through experiments on the balance of gravity carried out by the television station, it was concluded that Oliver was more like a human than a chimpanzee. 

Samples from Oliver's body were also taken for testing. Of the 40 cells taken, 38 cells had 48 chromosomes, while 2 cells had 47. The results of this experiment were shocking because chimpanzees have 48 chromosomes while humans have 46 chromosomes.

If Oliver has 47 chromosomes, that means the possibility that he is a hybrid really does have scientific backing!

In 1985, Oliver changed hands with monkey trainer Bill Rivers. Rivers also reported that Oliver was never able to get along with other chimpanzees.

By that year, Oliver's fame had faded, and he was starting to be forgotten by the public.

In 1989, Oliver was purchased by the Buckshire Corporation, a laboratory whose line of business was to rent out animals for scientific or cosmetic testing purposes. He was never used as an experimenter, but during his nine years there, Oliver was placed in a small cage, which left him with muscular atrophy.

In 1996, the president of the Buckshire Corporation, Sharon Hursh, released Oliver at the request of a primate organization called Primaly Primamates. Until now, Oliver still lives in the organization's facilities.

Then, the question is, is Oliver the missing link that has been sought for so long? Or big feet? 

Probably not, but many believe that Oliver is a human-chimpanzee hybrid.

For information, chimpanzees and humans have up to 95% similarity in DNA sequences. Because of that, some scientists have actually researched the possibility of producing creatures that are half chimpanzee and half human.

The effort was started by a Russian scientist named Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov in 1927. He injected human sperm into the uteri of three female chimpanzees. However, all three turned out not to be pregnant. The next experiment encountered problems, so it was not continued. There is no evidence that Ivanov managed to produce a chimpanzee-human hybrid.

When Oliver appeared in public, rumors circulated in the community that a chimpanzee in a laboratory in China managed to get pregnant from human sperm, but died before giving birth.

A similar story is told by University of Albany psychologist Gordon Gallup, who had heard that Robert Yerkes, founder of the Yerkes National Primate Research Center in Florida, succeeded in producing a human-chimpanzee hybrid in the 1920s. However, the creature was soon killed by Yerkes himself.

Although there is no evidence to support the story, speculation about Oliver's identity continues to grow.

Therefore, in 1996, Primaly Primate decided to end the debate by reexamining Oliver's taxonomy.

This research was carried out by Dr.David Ledbetter, a geneticist from the University of Chicago, who then re-examined Oliver's chromosomes. He found that Oliver had 48 chromosomes, not 47, as earlier research had suggested.

Ledbetter also noted that the uniqueness of Oliver's face and skull were within the limits of normal chimpanzee variation.

The results of this study were published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, thus putting an end to speculation about Oliver's oddities.

However, one question still hangs. If Oliver is indeed an ordinary chimpanzee, why do we never find a chimpanzee with facial features and behavior like him?

Last known, Oliver was staying at the Primaly Primate facility. He was over 50 years old, quite old for a chimpanzee. His eyes are almost blind, and his body is not as healthy as it used to be. The poor living conditions at the Buckshire Corporation had left him with arthritis, so that he could no longer walk on two legs.

From his remote residence, Oliver still often thinks to himself. Maybe think of the days when he was in the Congo, rising to fame, then being forgotten.

That is life.

you can watch one of six documentaries about Oliver. You can watch five other videos on YouTube.

Hope you enjoy with this article, please leave your comment about what creatures or things we will discuss later, Thanks

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