Jack (baboon)
chacma baboon, d. 1890
Jack (died 1890) was a chacma baboon who assisted a disabled railway signalman, James Wide, in South Africa.
Biography
Jack worked with double-leg amputee James Edwin Wide, who worked as a signalman for the Cape Town–Port Elizabeth Railway service. James "Jumper" Wide had been known for jumping between railcars until an accident where he fell and lost both of his legs below the knee.
Wide first encountered Jack at the Uitenhage market in 1881, where the young monkey was helping a merchant by leading an oxcart. Struggling to maintain employment, Wide approached the merchant and convinced him to sell Jack, who was about 2 years old. Wide then trained Jack to push his wheelchair and to operate the railways signals under supervision.
Jack was approximately 4 feet and 6 inches tall when standing on his hind legs. He was strong enough to pull even the heaviest ("distant") signal. He also proved capable of understanding Wide's needs by observation, leading him to help in unexpected ways. For instance, Wide needed to routinely bring engine-drivers a padlock key when they needed to refuel.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Jack (baboon)” is chacma baboon, d. 1890. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Jack, baboon and chacma, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “chacma baboon, d. 1890” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1473852. VIAF identifies the subject as 1161451554764102977. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1890 and 1881.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Jack (baboon)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Jack (baboon) primary sources, Jack (baboon) archive and Jack research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Jack (baboon)”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Jack (baboon)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.