Sally Jones, a chimpanzee which was shot and captured in Africa in 1950, was a famous circus performer for a number of years. While that may not sound impressive, keep in mind that these performances – which included ballet, bicycling and walking upright – were given while the buckshot that she received during her capture was still present in her abdomen. So extensive was the injury that she was unable to reproduce as a result of it, and was consigned to being nothing more than a circus performer for 20 years. By 1970, she had been acquired by the Institute for Primate Studies in Norman, Oklahoma, where she spent the next 13 years as a specimen of behavioral and cognitive research. Upon the sale of the research facility in 1982, Sally went to live at Black Beauty Ranch. In 1993, she suffered a stroke, from which she completely recovered, but it was soon discovered that she also suffered from diabetes. Before she finally died, Sally Jones spent her last 15 years with her companion, Nim Chimpsky.
One of the most unusual primates that came to the attention of the public is Oliver – a chimpanzee with some rather unique behavioral traits. In addition to being bipedal (which means that he walked completely upright, in the same way that a human would walk), he also drank coffee and beer, smoked cigars and would lounge around on the sofa when he wanted a bit of R&R time. In fact, if his owners ran out of coffee, he would go out and get it himself, bringing it back into the den upon his return. Originally one of a group of 12 chimps that were brought into the U.S., Oliver was the one who seemed to exhibit the most humanistic traits. While he always enjoyed being part of the human social circle, preferring the company of humans, his comfort level went a bit too far when he made sexual advances toward his owner’s wife one day. Not long after that, he was retired to Texas, far away from the “apple of his eye.”