Late in 1973, two weeks after being born at Dr. William Lemmon's Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma,
Nim Chimpsky, a
chimpanzee, was separated from his mother and taken to New York to participate in an extended study of
animal language acquisition conducted by Dr.
Herbert S. Terrace of
Columbia University. Nim was placed in the home of Stephanie LaFarge, a former student of Terrace, who was instructed to raise him as if he were a human child to see if he would acquire human-like language. Neither LaFarge nor her husband or children were fluent in the
American Sign Language. Terrace and his research assistant,
Laura-Ann Petitto, had concerns that the experiment should be more controlled, so Nim was eventually moved to a property owned by Columbia University, where he was raised and taught by a group of students, who would bring him to a classroom at Columbia to be tested. He learned the signs for many more words and attracted some media attention, but he also injured a number of the researchers, which became increasingly troubling as he continued to become larger and stronger. After ending the experiment, Dr. Terrace returned Nim to the Institute for Primate Studies, where Nim saw another chimpanzee for the first time since he was an infant. An analysis of his data led Dr Terrace to conclude that Nim's use of sign language seemed to be mimicry to receive a reward rather than indicating an understanding of
grammar and a more human-like use of language. Faced with financial difficulties, Dr. Lemmon sold many of his chimpanzees, including Nim, to the
Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP), a pharmaceutical animal testing laboratory managed by
New York University (NYU). Bob Ingersoll, an Institute for Primate Studies employee who had befriended Nim, objected to the move and worked to free Nim, and a newspaper article led to a lawyer becoming involved. Fearing negative publicity, NYU released Nim, and he was bought by
Cleveland Amory and moved to Black Beauty Ranch in Texas. Although Nim was no longer being experimented on, he was the only primate at Black Beauty Ranch. Occasionally, he would escape from his cage, and on one of these occasions, he killed a dog. LaFarge visited him, and after entering his cage, Nim dragged her about by her ankle. A year after moving to the ranch, a female chimpanzee was brought to live with Nim. Ten years later, Ingersoll, who had not been allowed to visit Nim, heard the female chimp was in failing health and contacted the new manager at Black Beauty Ranch to ask if he could visit. Ingersoll reestablished a relationship with Nim and arranged with James Mahoney for a male and female chimp to be sent to the ranch from LEMSIP, which was shutting down. Five years later, on March 10, 2000, Nim died at the age of 26 of a heart attack. ==Release==