Some tests were however carried out during his time there. Once in Japan Oliver was paraded as a curiosity around television studios shackled by the neck to a leash. He had however only been removed from his cage for this staged event. On the plane Oliver was filmed in a seat whilst a flight attendant served him food and drink, giving the impression he flew to Japan like a human. The trip went ahead on the pretext of scientific interest but it quickly became apparent it was almost entirely showmanship. Miller began to promote Oliver as a humanzee and arranged for him to visit Japan to appear on television and to undergo tests. On a number of occasions he tried to forcefully mount Janet, so for her safety it was decided to sell Oliver.Īs a friend of Frank and Janet, Michael Miller, a New York Lawyer knew Oliver and became his next owner. When Oliver became sexually mature he didn't show interest in female chimpanzees but turned his attention to human females.
OLIVER CHIMPANZEE SERIES
It is this characteristic among all others that later drew attention to him and led to a series of owners exploiting Oliver in their carnivalesque way, which in turn encouraged the popular media to contemplate the possibility of Oliver being a humanzee. This is corroborated by the fact that Oliver would lock his legs at the knees when walking, whereas a trained chimpanzee would walk upright with bent legs. Janet has said Oliver was never trained to do this and took to walking upright from a very early age. If there was one feature that caught everyone's attention it was Oliver's preference for walking bipedally 3 rather than using his front knuckles like other chimps.
His head is about a third smaller than other chimpanzees, his face is flatter giving him a slightly more human appearance and his ears are pointed rather than the usual rounded chimpanzee shape. Oliver's physical characteristics also singled him out. Janet mentioned he would carry out certain chores, such as taking straw from the barn in a wheelbarrow, and helping her to feed the dogs by getting their bowls and mixing the food - all without being asked or trained to do so. Oliver's remarkable intelligence was also a surprise to those who met him. He also enjoyed coffee and a night time shot of whiskey that he would pour himself and mix with Seven-Up. Oliver apparently liked watching television and smoking the occasional cigar. Firstly she says that Oliver had a different scent to other chimpanzees who shunned him, although he seemed to have preferred the company of humans anyway.
In a Discovery Channel documentary about Oliver, Janet described what made him so distinctive. Frank and Janet were Oliver's first owners and soon began to realise Oliver was different from other chimpanzees. Oliver was captured from the wild 2 in the Democratic Republic of Congo and bought to America at the age of two by the brother of Frank Berger, who with his wife Janet trained and worked with performing animals. Oliver's life has not been an entirely easy one, enduring more than he should have at the whim of his human associates, whilst at times challenging our perception of ourselves. Media speculation at the time often referred to Oliver as either the missing link, a baby 'bigfoot' or more commonly as a humanzee 1, leading to a series of owners exploiting Oliver's curious appearance and characteristics in sideshows and television commercials. Oliver the chimpanzee first gained public attention in the 1970s due to his distinctive appearance and human like behaviour, particularly his habit of walking upright instead of on all fours.
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