'But until there is some evidence either way, it's simply an academic exercise rather than anything you can take seriously,' he said.ĭr. It could make people think about their relationship to evolution,' said Gallup. It has such mind-boggling implications for things like religion, and whether such a creature would be covered by the Bill of Rights. The answer may come after a blood sample -to be taken from Oliver at an upcoming medical examination - are tested at the University of Chicago, allowing scientists there to finally determine his genetic pedigree. READ MORE: Captivating tales from South Texas and Mexico Rumors of such taboo experiments being conducted in China, Italy and the United States have persisted for years, but have never been acknowledged.Ĭould Oliver be the result of clandestine genetic alchemy? It turns out that humans and chimps are at least 99 percent identical in terms of basic biological chemistry, and you can get hybrids among much more diverse creatures than that,' he said. 'It's difficult to know for sure, but I think there is reason to suspect that Oliver may be a human-chimpanzee hybrid. Gordon Gallup, an anthropology professor at the University of New York at Albany.īut, said Gallup, who has lectured about Oliver in his evolutionary psychology course, there are other possiblities holding infinitely more complicated implications.

Others think he may be a cross between a common chimp and a pygmy chimp, and soon we'll be able to make a determination,' said Dr. 'The prevailing view is that Oliver is simply a mutant chimp. Quite soon, possibly for the first time, Oliver will undergo sophisticated blood and genetic analysis to resolve, once and for all, exactly who or what he is. Old news accounts assert that Oliver has 47 chromosomes, one more than a human, one less than a chimpanzee, but there are no records to confirm it. And he's not like other male chimps which can get quite grabby and aggressive,' he said. 'And he understands a lot and is quite cooperative.

'He's bonded with one little female,' said Swett. Wally Swett, director of the primate sanctuary, said his newest celebrity guest is adapting well, and, after years in isolation, has formed an attachment. Since May, when he and 11 other chimps were retired from the Buckshire Corp., a research center in Pennsylvania, Oliver has shared a spacious open-air cage with other chimps at Primarily Primates. He preferred to be with humans,' recalled Bill Rivers, another former owner. 'He was not like normal chimps and other chimps didn't get along with him too well. Others have noted Oliver's peculiar smell, eye coloring, bird-like voice and various mannerisms as being very unchimplike.Īnd then there is Oliver's sense of himself. And another aspect is his very small head,' he said. He's bipedal, which means he walks on two feet, and that is very unusual. 'His physical appearance was rather different than most chimps. He was exploited tremendously for his very unusual morphological characteristics,' said Ken DeCroo, a California anthropologist and animal trainer who owned him a decade ago and, like others, has not forgotten him. 'Oliver's had a real strange and sordid history.

Oliver chimpanzee