Jack The Railway Baboon

JACK THE RAILWAY BABOON

Dogs providing assistance to the visually impaired. Falconers using birds of prey in hunts. These are just two examples of how people and animals work together. In this article I want to talk about a particularly charming example of human-animal cooperation, and it concerns a baboon called Jack.

The story of Jack dates back to the time of the Boer Wars. As a youngster, Jack had been adopted by a railway man by the name of James Edwin Wide. Having lost his legs in a railway accident, James set about training Jack so as to be able to lend assistance and enable him to continue working on the railroad. In order to get to work each day, James would ride on a special trolley, and Jack's job was to put the vehicle down on the tracks and push James to work. On downhill sections the two of them would ride together. The picture below, taken from the book 'Life's Solution', shows Jack and James on their way to work.

Pushing the trolley was not the only job Jack the baboon did. His responsibilities also included pumping and carrying water, locking doors, a spot of gardening, and handing over a key to passing train drivers who needed to unlock the points giving access to the coal yard.

Amazingly, Jack's duties even extended to taking over the job of railway signalman. This came about when James suffered an accident in which his arm was injured, leaving him unable to do his job. Jack had already been trained how to work the levers for the signals and so, following commands from James, he took over the signalling. According to Euan Nesbit, who wrote about Jack in an article for Nature, he "knew every one of the various signals and which lever to full-not unnaturally the railway passengers objected initially but the baboon never failed during his many years of work".

One might sympathise with those passengers who were unnerved to see that a baboon was in charge of operating the signals! It might not have done them much good to voice their concerns in too angry a way though. On one occasion somebody making offensive remarks to James found themselves being jostled off the platform by his baboon friend.

Jack worked with James for nine years, until he died of tuberculosis. James was said to have been heartbroken at this loss. Next time you see a train or ride on one, why not spare a thought for Jack the railway baboon, who proved not only how smart primates can be, but that friendships can be formed between two different species.

REFERENCES

'Life's Solution' by Simon Conway Morris