MOVIE - MOVIE ON MONKEY WHO WAS 'RAISED AS A HUMAN'

Movie on monkey who
was 'raised as a human' 

Ape-y days ... Nim was invited to 'explore' nude woman's body

25 Jul 2011

THE life story of a chimp who was raised 'as a human' for a 1970s experiment is to be made into a film.

The primate - called Nim - was encouraged to 'explore' a nude woman's body, be breastfed and allowed to smoke as part of the weird test.
He was also dressed and fed like a young boy and was given sign language lessons to see if he could communicate with people.

Grub ... he was given human food

New York psychologist Herb Terrace launched the four-year study in 1973.
Now British director James Marsh - the man behind Oscar-winning Man On Wire - has turned his story into a film called Project Nim.

As a baby ... Nim was given a human 'mother'

'Hippy' Terrace took the chimp from his mother shortly after his birth at a primate research centre in Oklahoma, US.
He named him Nim Chimpsky - a pun on famous thinker Noam Chomsky who believed only humans have the capacity for language.
Nim was sent to live with the academic's former lover Stephanie LaFarge - who later stripped naked for him.

Idea ... boffin Terrace

She recalled: "I never felt sexually engaged with him."
Chimps are unable to speak, but after sign language lessons he was soon able to make the signs for 'eat', 'me', 'Nim' and 'hug'.
Nim became a celebrity, appearing on the cover of New York magazine in 1975 and in an episode of kids' TV show Sesame Street.
He later moved in with another woman - but when she began an affair with boffin Terrace, he lashed out.

Nim swooped from a 25ft high window and began banging her head against the floor.
Speaking in the film, the woman said: "You can't give human nurture to an animal that could kill you."
Nim was eventually returned to the primate research centre where he was born and rehoused with a cage of other chimps.
Carers told how as they walked away he gave the sign language for 'hug'.
But test results later proved he had no idea what he was saying and had simply been copying the sign used to beg for things.

He was later befriended by another hippy called Bob Ingersoll, who would share cannabis joints with him.
Bob admitted: "He liked to have fun - who doesn't."
Nim died in 2000 from a heart attack aged just 26 - tragically young as most chimps in captivity live until the age of 60.