Talk:Ham (chimpanzee)

Ham's remains
I seem to remember that Ham's skeleton is actually at the National Museum of Health and Medicine, so I wonder if the rest of his remains are buried in New Mexico, or what.

http://www.dcmilitary.com/army/stripe/10_10/features/33756-1.html

What's even more strange is that the museum has made casts of some of Ham's bones, and they are for sale. For $145, you can pick up a plastic replica of Ham's pelvic girdle:

http://www.francecasts.com/casts/primates/post_cranial/

--Jkonrath 18:03, 31 January 2006 (UTC)


 * Yes, National Museum of Health and Medicine does have his skeleton. (The URL for Stripe has moved, it is now http://www.dcmilitary.com/dcmilitary_archives/stories/031005/33756-1.shtml .) The New York Times also mentioned in an August 6, 2002 story that they have his skeleton, see http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C00E5D6133BF935A3575BC0A9649C8B63 . The book Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle by Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs states on p. 258 that Ham's skeleton was retained and his other remains buried at International Space Hall of Fame. The bit in the Wikipedia article about Minnie being buried there seems to be bogus and I am flagging it for citation needed. There's no documentation for this, and I've visited the Ham grave site and there's no mention of Minnie. --Uncia (talk) 14:38, 11 May 2008 (UTC)
 * No verification of Minnie's burial place has come forth, so I have deleted this claim from the article. The deleted text is: "Minnie is buried next to Ham at the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, New Mexico." --Uncia (talk) 21:24, 16 May 2008 (UTC)
 * The mistake on the NASA-page concerning his remains is corrected - look here: http://history.nasa.gov/animals.html (compared to the passage here). So I think it should be deleted. Or is the passage cited because the date of his death is different? Chimp-champ (talk) 20:03, 26 March 2010 (UTC)

I have heard that the Russians had already put a homonid into space and back before Ham did it so it might not be true that he was the first homonid to go to space and I would like that information to be verified.Problem is, I'm not a member so I can't flag it for citation needed 96.252.120.13 (talk) 20:55, 11 January 2011 (UTC)Bob

Ham's birth date
Ham is variously reported as having been born in 1955, 1956, or 1957, and correspondingly there are various reports of his age at milestones in his career and life. A birth date of July 1957 seems to be the most reliable, and I give two references for this in the article. Uncia (talk) 00:38, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Popular Culture
The band Polaris (best known for the Pete & Pete OST) dedicated their first (and only) album (Music from The Adventures of Pete & Pete, released 1999) to "Astrochip HAM & Spacedog Laika" No idea if this is notable enough, so I just added it here. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.76.205.191 (talk) 01:24, 29 January 2011 (UTC)

Evel Knievel reference
The Evel Knievel reference is an an error on wikipedia. If you look at the history, the original entry of "Ham the Chimp" was begun by wikipedia user "Infrogmation" in December 2002.

When the article was created, the first entry included the Knievel reference (which is still there after 175 edits). You will also note the following reference was added: "Burgess, Colin; Chris Dubbs (2007) [2007-01-24]. Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle. Springer-Praxis Books in Space Exploration"; however, the book was published in 2007 and used Infrogmation's original wikipedia reference as source in the book.

"Infrogmation" obtained the reference from a "Who's Who" website, which provides a "loop" to share similar people. Infrogmation mistakenly noted the words "Ham stars with daredevil Evel Knievel..." as a reference to a movie. However, it was a reference to the loop and is entitled, More Audacity Than Cranial Capacity: http://www.who2.com/MoreAudacity.html

Docob5 (talk) 23:13, 31 January 2011 (UTC)

Cause of death?
27 is not especially a long lifetime for a chimp, especially in captivity. The source page range isn't available freely in Animals in Space. Lycurgus (talk) 11:00, 31 January 2012 (UTC)

WHY IS THERE NO MENTION OF THE RECOVERY SHIP USS DONNER LSD 20 IN ANY ARTICALS INCLUDING LIFE MAGIZINE. MY NAME IS WILLIAM SMART AND I HAPPNED TOO BE ONE OF HAMS HANDELERS UPON RECOVERY. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 207.144.62.71 (talk) 19:23, 17 April 2012 (UTC)

Animal Planet documentary
If there was an Animal Planet documentary done on Ham as told by an actual handler named Jeff, what is Jeff's last name? 74.73.152.5 (talk) 04:43, 11 May 2014 (UTC)

Burial
"Ham's remains, minus the skeleton, were buried" eeer what happened to the skeleton? O.o — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nelson21101805 (talk • contribs) 00:44, 31 January 2019 (UTC)


 * The article in its present form describes the skeleton as being "held in the collection of the National Museum of Health and Medicine." The information may have been added after you asked. — O'Dea  (talk) 19:21, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Wasn't Ham angry after his rough spaceflight?
Didn't Ham show hostility towards his post-flight human recovery team when he was released from his spacecraft? I think I read this in Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" but that reading was many years ago and my memory is vague. I retain the weak impression from Wolfe's account that Ham was badly upset and angry because of the harshness of his flight (the excessive acceleration of 14.7 g, almost 3 g more than planned), the bruise he received on his nose during the rough landing at sea, and the delayed recovery while his spacecraft filled dangerously with seawater.

Post-flight photographs showed him with his teeth bared; this was represented in the press as smiling but Wolfe, I think, described him as furious. I must borrow "The Right Stuff" from the library to try to verify my recollection and adjust the article accordingly. At present, a picture caption identifies Ham as receiving "A hand shake welcome" with the possibly unreliable implication of post-flight equanimity. — O'Dea (talk) 19:11, 6 March 2021 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: History of Science to Newton
— Assignment last updated by PuRan17 (talk) 04:36, 28 April 2023 (UTC)

Relevance of Use of Chimpanzees section
While the section is useful in the non-human primate research, by a cursory look the only source in that section does not mention Ham or space. The section may be better moved to elsewhere. Mys_721tx (talk) 21:19, 24 October 2023 (UTC)


 * I agree, and anything relevantly related is in the next section anyway. Check the other relevant articles and see if there's a place for it? - UtherSRG (talk) 11:30, 25 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Considering the ethics angle, Animal testing on non-human primates may be a potential destination. Mys_721tx (talk) 03:45, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
 * Go for it. :) - UtherSRG (talk) 10:38, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

Agreed, this section is completely pointless for this article. There's already an existing page on the ethics of this. Some activist probably edited it in. Binglederry (talk) 01:38, 12 February 2024 (UTC)


 * Since the sources were from 2006 and 2012 and Animal testing on non-human primates has better sources and content overall, I went ahead and removed the two sections. I left a link to Animal testing on non-human primates on Monkeys and apes in space. Mys_721tx (talk) 19:35, 12 February 2024 (UTC)