Our genetic relationship with chimpanzees has been the subject of many studies throughout the years. In the ‘70s, a group of curious psychologists delved deeper into the similarities between us and them. The question was: Was it possible for chimps to learn how to communicate like mankind or is language just a uniquely human ability?

Nim Chimpsky was the subject of this experiment. However, he was sadly left with a broken heart — quite literally - and much more. Keep reading to find out more about the chimp that grew up to believe he was human, and his tragic end.

A Controversial Experiment

We alone, among the animals on earth, can articulate abstract thought through speech. Even chimpanzees - our closest relatives - cannot produce sounds like the human voice box. But we were determined to conquer the impossible. So when researchers tried to develop language skills in chimps, they chose to teach them American Sign Language (ASL) instead.

A young, adorable chimpanzee called Nim Chimpsky was selected for the task, and thus began the dubious experiment that would prove to be disastrous and dejected. This is the tale of Nim Chimsky, a tale of woe, cruelty and the oldest companion of humankind: hubris.

Torn From His Mother's Arms

Nim was born at the Institute for Primate Studies to a chimpanzee named Carolyn; he was her seventh baby. And like all her children, Nim was taken away from Carolyn, all in the name of science. But this mother always tried to protect her babies.

Every time she fought to keep them, and every time researchers shot her with a tranquilizer gun. They took her newborn away while she sank into oblivion. Carolyn would wake up - her baby gone - and she desperately searching to no avail. But for Nim, they had something special in store; he would be raised as a human.

His Name Was An Ill-Advised Joke

This could perhaps be an omen as to how the experiment was going to turn out. Naming the protagonist as a joke, showed a lack of seriousness. Nim Chimpsky was named as a tribute towards American Linguist Noam Chomsky, who has written numerous works and books.

Considering that Chomsky had proposed that language was unique to human beings, the researchers considered it would be funny to name a chimp after him. Specifically, the chimp they were hoping would be able to prove the contrary and demonstrate that some animals could also learn and use language.

Raised By Humans In The Name Of Science

The experiment kicked off with Nim Chimpsky getting placed in a home in Upper West Side, New York. Stephanie LaFarge, her husband, and their family were the ones living there. As a psychology graduate, she had studied under Herbert Terrace, the director of Nim’s project.

Stephanie picked up Nim when he was only 10 days old and took him home to raise him. There, she breastfed him just as she had done with her other children. They provided a loving home for Nim, and it is believed that he grew up thinking he was human, just like everyone else around him.

Hooked On Weed & Coffee

Though raised as a human child in the care of Stephanie LaFarge, Nim was often given psychoactive substances despite his young age and being a chimpanzee. They gave him namely coffee and marijuana. Nim clearly enjoyed smoking it, and he even learned how to use sign language to ask for his joint and his cup of coffee; which he did. A lot apparently.

Many would later argue that it was like peddling drugs to a child, but it was the ‘70s, and there were no set rules for this kind of experiment at the time. Not surprisingly, this was identified later on as one of the major weaknesses of Terrace’s study.

The First Animal Ever On The Cover Of New York Magazine

Nim became the first animal to land on the cover of New York magazine, thanks to the uncharacteristic star quality of his case. The rarity of a chimpanzee who could communicate with humans really got the juices of the Press flowing. He was often invited to TV shows, where he would ask the hosts for a drink using ALS.

Obviously, Nim was a sensational being. But along with his fame, some eerie questions began to arise. How ethical was it to raise a chimpanzee as a human? And what would happen when he reached adulthood? The answers would come soon and with them, Nim's downfall.

The Beast Within Arises

When chimpanzees become adults, they tend to develop a violent streak; this is a core part of their instincts, of course. Nim was now a danger to his human family, and Stephanie couldn’t handle him anymore. He became aggressive towards them, and this started a path of instability for Nim.

As his great strength became a serious concern, Nim had to go. They switched Nim’s residence to the University of Columbia, and the experiment went on. However, this only aggravated things. Nim would attack his caretakers there, going as far as biting one of them in the face.

Human Relationships Affected The Experiment

While in the Columbia mansion, he continued his learning process. Here, he met Laura Petitto, who would become his second mother. Laura was very intelligent, despite only being 18 years old. However, although she had a very good disposition, this turned complicated very soon and anxiety took hold.

Nim’s aggressiveness continued to grow. Furthermore, Laura got involved with Professor Terrace, which heavily affected her involvement in the project. The observations stopped being objective since both the love she had developed for Nim and her relationship with Terrace got in the way of research.

Nim Understood Dominance And Animal Behavior

Another research student that became involved in Nim’s education was Joyce Butler. However, instead of mothering him as Laura did, she would fight back. One time, while Nim was being aggressive, Joyce actually bit his ear. After this, Nim started behaving appropriately during their sessions together.

However, Nim was a teenage chimpanzee by that point and his strength was increasing. Some of the researchers considered that it was necessary to be more violent towards him in order for him to respect them. It is unknown if Nim was hurt or to what extent these disciplinary methods went.

Nim, Raised Like A Human Child, Gets Locked With The Chimpanzees

After a close encounter with one of the interpreters that were part of the project, it was decided that enough was enough. Fearing a lawsuit settlement in the future considering the attack, Terrance decided to inject Nim with a tranquilizer and send him back to where he had been born in Oklahoma.

Nim was put in a cramped cage. In the infamous farm where he was, they would use any measures necessary to make sure he behaved. Nim, who had been raised as a human child, suddenly found himself being treated like an animal. The change must have been incredibly traumatic for such an intelligent animal.

Sold Off To Black Beauty Ranch

Given Nim's condition, Terrace had to end the experiment. He pulled the plug and sent Nim back where he was born, Institute for Primate Studies (IPS). He had received human-like treatment for the entire first decade of his life, and now they threw him back to the life of a chimpanzee.

Nim was used for experiments and was often heavily sedated. If that wasn't enough, the IPS was running out of funds, so director William Lemmon sold him alongside other chimps. Cleveland Amory, who owned Black Beauty Ranch for horses, bought Nim. He imagined that he could help the poor chimp. However, things wouldn't play out quite so well...

His Only Two Treasured Possessions

At Black Beauty Ranch, they provided Nim with magazines and children’ books to keep him busy. Although he tended to destroy the magazines, he seemed to enjoy the books, with a specific two that held a special interest for him.

The first one was about learning ASL, and it had Sesame Street drawings, and the second was much more personal. That one was actually about him. His history had been set in a book, and in its pages, there were photos of himself and the people that had been important in his life, including Terrace and Stephanie LaFarge.

Terrace Visits Nim Only To Crush His Last Hope

Like humans, chimps are naturally social animals and Nim - having been raised as a human - was especially so. When Herbert Terrace finally visited him at the Black Beauty Ranch, Nim jumped on him, hugged him, and showed many signs of relief and happiness. The poor chimp probably thought he was going back to his family in New York. He wasn’t.

In reality, that would be the last time Nim would ever see Terrace. His first months at the ranch were rough for his physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Perhaps he wasn’t getting beaten by other chimps, like after the experiment, but he was utterly and completely alone.

The Innocent Abandoned

Nim suffered his first abandonment when they took him from his real mother. His second time was at the hands of the only mother he ever knew. It’s difficult to blame Stephanie, though. She wasn’t equipped to deal with an adult chimpanzee.

The last abandonment - the one that broke him - was when the research got suspended, and he ended up losing Terrace too. Despite not being as hands-on as one would expect from the director of the project, Terrace was a constant in Nim’s life, a life that was torn asunder when they sold him to Black Beauty Ranch. Terrace and Stephanie only visited him once.

He Attacked His Adoptive Mother Viciously

When Stephanie went to visit Nim, it looked, for a second, as if a heartwarming reunion was about to happen. The illusion shattered abruptly, as Nim exploded in rage. He slammed Stephanie to the floor and tried to block her from exiting the cell. She had broken the rules by entering without any of the caretakers, and she got badly injured.

Stephanie later said that she felt like she deserved it. After all, she had basically deserted her child. Not everyone agreed with her, but there were many who thought that was exactly the case. They had abandoned Nim to his fate, which loomed dark ever closer...

Like A Human, Nim Was Going Mad In Isolation

It’s known that for humans, isolation is one of the worst tortures. The same holds true for chimpanzees. Nim’s behavior became more and more uncontrollable whenever they kept him isolated for long periods of time. However, he faced difficulties when socializing with other chimpanzees too. Trapped between two worlds, a broken hybrid, he was too violent to live with humans and too docile to live with chimps.

Nim would try to entertain himself and play games on his own, but this wasn’t enough to hold his descent into mental illness. His situation was deteriorating fast, but then, a sliver of light shone through the darkness, if only for a short while.

Sally, The Trembling Light Of Hope

As Nim was isolated at the ranch, he became deeply depressed. It was one of his closest friends, Bob Ingersoll from IPS,  who came to visit and realized what was going on. Thanks to Bob's mediation, they found a partner for Nim.

Sally was a chimpanzee that had been in a circus, and she knew many cool tricks that she showed off for Nim. They seemed to have a great time together, and he became happy again. However, it wouldn’t last. Sally died of a stroke, and Nim's heart was shuttered in a million pieces. His own life's end wasn't far now.

A Tiny Bit Of Solace Before The End

After Sally died of a stroke, the owners of Black Beauty Ranch decided to expand their area, in order to accommodate more chimpanzees who came from other institutions. Nim found new companions in Lulu, Midge, and Kitty, and they coexisted peacefully. Kitty and Nim even developed a close relationship, though never to the level of what he had with Sally.

During the short time before his own demise, Nim was finally able to find love and acceptance among his kind. His long exile between the worlds of humans and chimpanzees had finally come to an end.

Snuffed Out At Only 26 Years

Nim Chimpskey, the most human of all chimpanzees, died young at 26 after a life of abandonment and neglect. This is very unusual for chimpanzees who usually live until their sixth or seventh decade. Many of the people who knew him believed that the many sorrows he suffered were too much for him.

Sally’s death was the last straw that broke his heart. It's a wonder that Nim survived as much as he did, after everything he had gone through. Nim left this world young, but in his short life, he touched the hearts of many people. Nim's legacy, however, would reverberate across the human world for decades to come...

A Chimp After Everyone’s Heart

Despite all of the hardships he experienced, Nim succeeded in making lots of friends during his short life. Stephanie, who basically followed an adoption procedure and raised him as her own for his first years, was the first of many.

Nim developed a very close relationship with Bill Tyman, his caretaker. He also used to play pranks on one of his handlers Laura-Ann Pettito, but he would also help her with the dishes and even with cooking! Of course, he was best friends with Bob Ingersoll, who was there during his time of distress before the end. But, Herbert Terrace, his "father" of sorts, had a different tale to tell.

Eventually, The Experiment Was Written Off As A Failure

Throughout the ongoing years of Project Nim, Terrace often boasted about its immense success and groundbreaking headway. Then, everything changed. When the experiment was shut down, Terrace submitted his final reports condemning it as a failure. According to Terrace, Nim was only manipulating humans just to get treats. Nim’s use of sign language was described as mere imitation.

Many people disagreed. They cited the fact that Nim sometimes initiated conversation, which surely showed more than just imitation. But most of all, Terrace’s verdict meant that Nim had suffered for nothing and that he should have never been taken from his natural habitat in the first place.

The Next Step That Never Came

According to Terrace, if Project Nim had shown significant promise, he was planning to take it to the next level. He would teach sign language to a female chimpanzee and then have them mate. Theoretically, this would determine if Nim and his hypothetical partner could add education into their dynamic and teach their offspring ALS. This never came to pass.

Terrace called off the experiment and published his controversial conclusions. He received heavy criticism as many considered the end of the experiment premature, and his conclusions unreliable. Nonetheless, Terrace's failure all but halted progress in the field.

He Almost Destroyed Chimp Language Research

Terrace’s claims that the study was a failure had gone a step further. Not only did he say that the Nim project had failed, but he also condemned all other studies related to the subject. Despite the great efforts the university had put on the matter, he classified them as futile and senseless.

The assertions he made had grave consequences, and because of his conclusions, an entire generation’s work was set back. But later on, the research was fortunately resumed, declaring that certain fundamental flaws were present in the design of Terrace’s study.

Project Nim, The Documentary

Project Nim is a documentary directed by James Marsh. He managed to get hold of footage shot during the experiment, and he interviewed key participants as well. These included the director of the project, Herbert Terrace, along with Nim’s adoptive sister Jenny Lee, who has special insight on Nim’s first years.

Nim Chimpsky’s good friend Bob Ingersoll also participated. He made it very clear that Nim’s time in isolation was nothing short of torture. The documentary was critically acclaimed. It also earned numerous awards and nominations which included a British Academy Film Award.