An Intelligent Baboon.

Manawatu Herald, 30 July 1903, Page 3

An Intelligent Baboon.

In the first number of “ Animal Life ” (Messrs Hutchinson and Co.) is a photograph o! a baboon performing the work of a signalman. Uitenhage, the station where this strange railway employee has been seen is, about twenty-three miles from Port Elizabeth, and Wylde, the official signalman, trained the baboon to such perfection that he is able to sit in bis cabin, stuffing birds, etc., while the animal which was chained up outside, pulled all the levers and points, the signalman having certain signs to denote which lever it was to pull. As soon as the last train at night had gone, the signalman, who had lost both his legs, fixed a trolley on the rails and sat upon it, while the baboon pulled it along, »I noticed,” (writes Mr Fuller, the contributor of the photograph) «that the baboon never started the tr Hoy pulling with its collar, but used to grip the chain and run on three legs until the trolley got into good swing. It was very fond of Boer brandy and tobacco. If ever it broke- away it never associated with other baboqns, as it had been brought from some distance, and baboons seem very olanish.”