I do believe Oliver was something very different from ‘common chimpanzees’ and further testing could validate Oliver in his life and in his death and maybe if another Oliver comes along enable proper treatment. There is possibly biological material from Oliver around the globe and this gives opportunity for further testing to find the explanation for Oliver’s special qualities and crack that particular mystery!

As I see it there is presently some clamour for a bigfoot ‘body’ and allegedly science cannot proceed without one but a (living) body of something similar ie Oliver was in hand and still science could not proceed. Ironic! Prior to this of course virtually all putative bigfoot samples for DNA analysis were said to be either without any DNA, contaminated or degraded.

Dear friends of primates, I am very sorry to read of the death of Oliver, I think he must have had a content old age! Its commendable the work you have done, of love, to give him that. I think he was a remarkable person and did not fit the description in wikepedia of just a ‘common chimpanzee’. I have watched the unfolding of DNA technology for many years and realise it has frequently fallen short of what is claimed, particularly with primates. Over many past years people reported seeing primates like Oliver in the wild customarily bi-pedal and near to humans in behavour. These are documented in reputable books such as by sanderson and heuvelmens. So much about Oliver suggests he was different to chimpanzees and possibly connected with the early African reports but for some reason this was talked down, maybe because of the red herring that he was a humanzee which idea many, including myself find difficult. In addition within scientific circles in these type of issues scepticism rules!
What i am getting round to is that I ask you, indeed beg you to retain biological samples of Oliver, probably the last of his kind, so that as DNA technology advances more plausible and reliable DNA tests and others may be done with the almost certainty of enlightenment about Oliver and primates in general. There is a lot more that could be said about this subject but unfortunately it is late and maybe too late. Though I would ask you to consider what biological material you may have which could be of benefit.

I will stick my neck out here and say that I think Oliver was certainly not as described in wikepedia a ‘common chimpanzee’ but quite likely the last of one of the relic hominids from Africa as described by such as sanderson and heuvelmens and being so remarkable. Again sticking my neck out I do not believe the DNA tests gave the right answer about what Oliver was nor other tests, possibly because scientists were dealing with the suggestion that Oliver was a humanzee which somehow seems an unpalatable idea plus official scientic scepticism in hominid discoveries.

My feeling is that Oliver case should be looked at again and the DNA etc should fit what is known about Oliver rather than the other way. This seems to me a hugh miss for crptozoology, late but not too late to make something of it !

I have sent an E mail to primarily primates to ask beg them to retain biological samples hoping the have some even if Oliver body has already been cremated. The whole body would be better of course but people mourning for him mind find this difficult even insensitive.

I still remember him being tested to see if he was half human, crazy tales of how many chromosomes he did or did not have. Horrible stories of how a human/chimp hybrid came to be.

The silver lining in his roller coaster of a life seems to be the fact that he brought a lot of attention to chimpanzees in general, showing how human-like they actually are. The plight of research animals and how important it is to treat others (same species or not) humanely and with dignity.

Rest in peace.