
A baboon who acted as assistant to a disabled railway signalman in South Africa - yboris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(baboon)
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piokoch
Great story, reminds me the one about Wojtek - Syrian brown bear who was a
soldier of the Polish II Corps during World War II -
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_(bear)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wojtek_\(bear\)).

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michaelscott
Another one from South Africa, though perhaps a little less impressive:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Nuisance](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_Nuisance)

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emilfihlman
This is great! It would make a great feel good story, perhaps with the ending
changed.

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fit2rule
Why change anything about this story, and really .. with what privilege?

Jack was clearly a special creature. For the purpose of 'feel good', you'd
alter his story?

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chasingthewind
This is one of those articles that is so outlandish and incredible that I'm
left half wondering whether it's an elaborate prank. Either way I love it!
Thanks for posting it.

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hackeraccount
Yeah. My impression of Baboons is that they are ... ornery. Who knows ,though.

Also, is the Baboon taking a piss in that picture?

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xkcd-sucks
> James "Jumper" Wide had been known for jumping between railcars until an
> accident where he fell and lost both of his legs.

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dpflan
Fascinating; I want to know if Jack, the baboon, drank the half-bottle of beer
each week.

Connected by the topic of railways: Reminded me of the the Peter Dinklage film
_The Station Agent_
([https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340377/](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0340377/)).

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cknoxrun
I find it quite humorous that he may drink beer and as far as I can tell,
seems to be actively urinating the picture of him on the platform.

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lelima
I wonder why they stop the training/business, we will have now baboon guides
for blind people or something similar.

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zamalek
Baboons are pretty terrifying, they wouldn't make a very good service animal
if you expected to be around other people.

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BurningFrog
You could breed it out of them in N generations.

Wolfs are terrifying too!

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kwhitefoot
You could try but you might end up breeding out the very qualities that made
them useful as well.

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Wowfunhappy
The breeder would need to select for both types of traits.

It would just take a _very_ long time, with no certainty of success.

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BurningFrog
The Russian Fox domestication experiment has come pretty far in 60 years:

[http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160912-a-soviet-
scientist-c...](http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160912-a-soviet-scientist-
created-the-only-tame-foxes-in-the-world)

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dustinkirkland
Reminds me of the Grateful Dead song I sing my kids when I put them to bed,
"The Monkey and the Engineer".

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parliament32
More comprehensive article:
[http://www.knoxvilledailysun.com/news/2012/august/jack-
the-s...](http://www.knoxvilledailysun.com/news/2012/august/jack-the-
signalman.html)

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chriswwweb
They should make a movie out of this ;) ... @netflix

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fit2rule
Totally. Only thing is, who's gonna play Jack?

