A baboon who acted as assistant to a disabled railway signalman in South Africa

[yboris]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_(baboon)

[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).

[michaelscott]

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

[emilfihlman → michaelscott]

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

[fit2rule → emilfihlman]

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?

[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.

[hackeraccount → chasingthewind]

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

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

[xkcd-sucks]

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

[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/).

[cknoxrun → dpflan]

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.

[lelima]

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

[zamalek → lelima]

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

[dzhiurgis → zamalek]

That's what they used to say about * people

[BurningFrog → zamalek]

You could breed it out of them in N generations.

Wolfs are terrifying too!

[kwhitefoot → BurningFrog]

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

[Wowfunhappy → kwhitefoot]

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

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

[BurningFrog → Wowfunhappy]

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

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160912-a-soviet-scientist-c...

[dustinkirkland]

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

[parliament32]

More comprehensive article: http://www.knoxvilledailysun.com/news/2012/august/jack-the-s...

[chriswwweb]

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

[fit2rule → chriswwweb]

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