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Jack the Signalman began his career as an oxcart driver in S. Africa. He then assisted a double-amputee who worked at a train station. He pushed the man in his cart (seen in this picture), swept his hut, took out the trash, worked in his garden, and eventually learned how to operate the signal levers to keep the trains from colliding. In nine years he never made an error. If he didn't get a tot of "good Cape Brandy" every night he would sulk and refuse to work the next day. After they got over their shock that a baboon was operating the signals, the train company gave Jack an employee number, a salary that covered his rations, and half a bottle of beer every saturday.
Ahla the goatherd would groom her goats and pick off their ticks. She'd ride the tallest goat to herd her charges and keep watch for predators. When a goat went missing, she would search in the bush calling Ho! Ho! Ho! until she found them. Then she would carry them back to the herd. How do you look at 70 identical goats and automatically know that one is missing? Ahla knew!
She herded her goats out to pasture every morning and back to their barns every evening. As they were shunted into different barns, kids would get separated from their mothers. Ahla would go back and forth, picking up crying kids in one barn and carrying them to their mothers in the other barn, shoving their little muzzles up to their mother's teats to nurse. She did this until every kid was with its mother where it belonged.
No one ever taught her to do this. None of the humans knew one goat from another, but Ahla knew every goat as an individual. According to her owner, Ahla was "positively maniacal" about keeping babies with their mothers.
I love baboons.
Jack the Signalman began his career as an oxcart driver in S. Africa. He then assisted a double-amputee who worked at a train station. He pushed the man in his cart (seen in this picture), swept his hut, took out the trash, worked in his garden, and eventually learned how to operate the signal levers to keep the trains from colliding. In nine years he never made an error. If he didn't get a tot of "good Cape Brandy" every night he would sulk and refuse to work the next day. After they got over their shock that a baboon was operating the signals, the train company gave Jack an employee number, a salary that covered his rations, and half a bottle of beer every saturday.
Ahla the goatherd would groom her goats and pick off their ticks. She'd ride the tallest goat to herd her charges and keep watch for predators. When a goat went missing, she would search in the bush calling Ho! Ho! Ho! until she found them. Then she would carry them back to the herd. How do you look at 70 identical goats and automatically know that one is missing? Ahla knew!
She herded her goats out to pasture every morning and back to their barns every evening. As they were shunted into different barns, kids would get separated from their mothers. Ahla would go back and forth, picking up crying kids in one barn and carrying them to their mothers in the other barn, shoving their little muzzles up to their mother's teats to nurse. She did this until every kid was with its mother where it belonged.
No one ever taught her to do this. None of the humans knew one goat from another, but Ahla knew every goat as an individual. According to her owner, Ahla was "positively maniacal" about keeping babies with their mothers.
I love baboons.