Famous Monkeys Who would have guessed that there are actually web pages about famous monkeys. Perhaps the best, certainly number one at Google, is Famous Monkeys Through History, a somewhat bizarre site that chronicles the adventures of real life ape-o-nauts. My favourite is Gordo, the first ape in space who unfortunately died in somewhat controversial circumstances. Obscure Monkey Facts Washoe the chimp was possibly the first monkey to master the art of sign language. When encountering a monkey she disliked she signed "dirty" with "monkey" to express her disapproval of the other primate. The cleverly named 'Robomonkey' was the first robotic primate. A group of monkeys is called a troop of monkeys.