MAN OR ABE? THE GENETIC MYSTERY OF OLIVER

Our World
In 1976, a bald chimpanzee with eerily human traits shocked the world. Nicknamed the “Humanzee,” Oliver walked on two legs, preferred human company, and defied scientific explanation. Was he a human-chimp hybrid? A missing link? Or something science had never seen before? 

Humans and chimpanzees share an estimated 98 per cent of genetic material, having branched off from one another two and a half million years ago. Genetically it is very likely that humans and chimpanzees could produce offspring.

This fascinating special has unique access to the most famous purported human-chimpanzee hybrid called Oliver. He is 41 years old, walks upright on two legs, has a pronounced nose, human-like teeth and is eerily, always rejected by other chimpanzees. But is he really a chimp-human hybrid?

Drawing on archive footage and interviews this film explores the taboo of hybridisation and the ethics of such a Frankenstein-science.

This film was first broadcast: 2003

https://youtu.be/jZ0fxVtOPLg?si=dEa2092qn8tCmy1f