The story of the 'human chimpanzee': Walking on two legs, liking women and the tragedy of the end of life

Chimpanzees are thought to have 48 chromosomes, humans have 46, and Oliver the chimpanzee has 47.

From a dream with a part of human fiction

Perhaps movie lovers have not forgotten the fantasy series called Planet of the Apes of American cinema with 3 dramatic parts called Rise of the Apes (2011), The Beginning of the Planet of the Apes. apes (2014) and the Great War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) in which apes also have the ability to walk, talk, think and fight just like humans.

It seemed that this was just a product molded by filmmakers, but it turns out that in history, humans have embraced the dream of being able to create monkeys with the power of chimpanzees and intelligence. of human.

Even these research efforts continue to this day.

In 2019, a team of scientists led by Professor Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in the US created a human-monkey hybrid that survived for 19 days.

Humans still dream of creating a monkey as strong as chimpanzees and intelligent as humans. (Illustration)

Since the 20s of the 20th century, Russian scientists under Soviet leader Stalin have been asked to create super-soldier hybrids between humans and monkeys that can work in extremely harsh conditions. cruel and dangerous that man cannot handle.

Secret documents from that time (until the 90s were revealed) show that the Kremlin chiefs wanted an unstoppable army of ape-human hybrids with "unparalleled strength and uncharacteristic brains." fully developed" and extremely "resilient, not knowing what hunger is".

This project is led by Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov - a biologist who has spent his life only studying the cross between humans and monkeys by artificial insemination.

But the project failed and Ivanov died in a Soviet-era labor camp in the early 1930s.

Stalin wanted to create an army of ape-human super-soldiers. (Image of Caesar - the leader of the primates in the war with humans in part 3, The Great War for the Planet of the Apes).

By the 80s, there was news around the hybridization of chimpanzees and humans in laboratories in China was done in 1967, and one of the scientists involved in the project was Ji Yongxiang. Mr. Ji told Van Hoi newspaper that he intended to create an animal that could speak like a human but possess the incredible strength of a chimpanzee.

According to Ji, these hybrid chimpanzees will be used for mining, heavy farming or exploring dangerous areas such as outer space or the deep sea.

However, no successful hybridization has been officially recorded since then.

To the appearance of a "human chimpanzee"

In the 70s, the appearance of a chimpanzee named Oliver, considered a "mutant" with very human-like characteristics, once again awakened mankind's idea of ​​​​"hybrid chimpanzee".

Oliver, the chimpanzee was once considered a mutant with very human-like characteristics.

It is known that Oliver was brought back from the Congo and taken care of by two American coaches, the couple Frank and Janet Berger.

It has been described as having a slightly different appearance from chimpanzees and is thought to be more human-like, for example, having a flatter face than its counterpart, and walking on two feet. legged, straight back, less hairy than chimpanzees, much smarter than other chimpanzees, and even more interested in women than female chimpanzees.

And yet, Oliver is said to have 47 chromosomes, while chimpanzees have 48 and humans have 46.

Oliver bears many distinguishing features from chimpanzees and is thought to have 47 chromosomes.

It was these things that led Frank and Janet to believe that it was a hybrid between a human and a chimpanzee.

In an episode of the Discovery Channel documentary on December 16, 2006, Janet Berger also claimed that when Oliver was 16 years old, he was attracted to her.

In the end, Janet and her husband had to sell Oliver to a New York lawyer named Michael Miller.

The mystery is finally revealed

In 1977, Oliver's owner Michael Miller sold it to Ralph Helfer to perform in a theme park. After several transfers from one place to another, Oliver was finally taken to the Wildlife Training Center in Riverside, California, under owner Ken Decroo. In 1985, Ken sold Oliver to another person.

Oliver's last coach was Bill Rivers. However, Mr. Bill said Oliver could not get along with other chimpanzees.

By 1989, Oliver was acquired by Buckshire Corporation. This is a large laboratory in Pennsylvania that specializes in renting animals for scientific and cosmetic testing purposes.

A DNA test confirmed that Oliver was a normal chimpanzee.

Also from here, a geneticist took a sample of Oliver's DNA and discovered that it has 48 chromosomes - that is, like a normal chimpanzee, belonging to a chimpanzee family in Congo, not 47. chromosomes as previously rumored.

Not being tested, but locked in a cramped cage, Oliver suffered from severe muscular dystrophy, his body was emaciated, to the point of shaking his legs. In 1996, Sharon Hursh, the chairman of Buckshire Corporation, was sued by the animal welfare organization Primarily Primates, so he finally agreed to release Oliver.

In 1998, Oliver was taken to the sanctuary of Primarily Primates, living in a large outdoor space in Bexar County, Texas. But at that time, he was old, suffering from arthritis, and his eyes could no longer see as clearly as before.

Oliver spent the last years of his life with a chimpanzee named Raisin and died on June 2, 2012, when he was 55 years old.