Project Nim

Project Nim is a documentary about whether nurture or nature is the best way to bring humans closer to Chimps.  The documentary tells the story of a chimpanzee taken from its mother at birth and raised like a human child by a family in a brownstone house on the upper West Side of New York in the 1970s.


Young Nim is taught sign language and used as a science experiment by Dr Herbert S Terrace. He was bought up like a child, wore nappies, clothes, showered with love, made to eat at the same table as the rest of the family.  The older he got, the smarter he became, learning more and more sign language and bonding with the family.  Dr Terrace however, felt that Nim was not learning enough and that it wasn't being treated like a science experiment enough so Nim was taken out of the home he was in and placed in a mansion Terrace had bought solely for the use of housing Nim and all his teachers.


Nim, had new teacher after new teacher, he became smarter than them and began to use them to get what he wanted, treats, toys etc.  Eventually once the experiment was put to an end, Nim was transferred to a research lab and lived alone until just before his death of a heart attack at the young age of 26 years.


This film made me feel so sad.  So sad that humans are stupid enough to think we can make anything else live the way we do.  Nim was always going to be the Chimp he was meant to be, a grown male with aggressive tendencies, a need for a mate and huge open space to roam in.  Instead he was poked and prodded, squashed and made into something he was not.  And when he didn't live up to expectations, he was cast aside and dumped.  And for a chimp who has had nothing but attention his whole life, to suddenly get none, was devastating to him.


Humans don't respect their place in this world and do not respect the laws of nature.  This documentary was a great insight into human behaviour as much as it was about Nim's behaviours.


Rest in Peace Nim Chimpsky