0:00:10 > 0:00:25This film contains some strong language.
0:01:21 > 0:01:25(Dr Lemmon) A chimpanzee infant left with his mother is a thing, a lump.
0:01:25 > 0:01:27Taken away, he acquires
0:01:27 > 0:01:30human psychological test performances
0:01:30 > 0:01:32which are well-nigh unbelievable.
0:01:42 > 0:01:46(Stephanie) Nim was born at the primate centre in Oklahoma
0:01:46 > 0:01:48and I went out there to get him.
0:01:50 > 0:01:54I had never been near that many chimpanzees.
0:01:54 > 0:01:56It was frightening, intimidating,
0:01:57 > 0:02:00and I knew Dr Lemmon and his wife were watching me
0:02:00 > 0:02:02to see what kind of a mother would I be.
0:02:06 > 0:02:10Carolyn, Nim's mother, was sitting right there holding Nim,
0:02:12 > 0:02:14and she knew what was going to happen better than I did.
0:02:15 > 0:02:21She had had six of her previous babies removed, apparently, in the same way.
0:02:27 > 0:02:28DOOR OPENING
0:02:28 > 0:02:33When the time came to take Nim from his mother,
0:02:33 > 0:02:39she instantly took on this drama,
0:02:39 > 0:02:41this feeling of something about to happen.
0:02:43 > 0:02:45CHIMPANZEE SCREECHING
0:02:45 > 0:02:49And Dr Lemmon shot her with a tranquilising gun
0:02:50 > 0:02:51CHIMPANZEE SCREECHING
0:02:52 > 0:02:54And then said,
0:02:54 > 0:02:59"Quick, we have to get him before she falls over and falls on him."
0:03:00 > 0:03:03She was trying to protect him and cradle him.
0:03:04 > 0:03:07So, he raced in and got Nim
0:03:08 > 0:03:11and handed Nim to me
0:03:12 > 0:03:16and said, "Go back." You know, go back in the other space.
0:03:26 > 0:03:29He was very dense.
0:03:30 > 0:03:34Unlike a human baby that has fat,
0:03:35 > 0:03:37he was dense and hard.
0:03:38 > 0:03:40He didn't struggle. He didn't try to get away.
0:03:40 > 0:03:42He just screamed.
0:03:43 > 0:03:47As much as he may be screaming and protesting, he's also clinging.
0:03:48 > 0:03:51He was attaching for dear life.
0:04:14 > 0:04:16(Herb) Wouldn't it be exciting
0:04:16 > 0:04:19to communicate with a chimp
0:04:19 > 0:04:21and find out what it was thinking?
0:04:23 > 0:04:26If they could be taught to articulate
0:04:26 > 0:04:31what they were thinking about, this would be an incredible expansion
0:04:31 > 0:04:35of human communication, and possibly give us some insight
0:04:35 > 0:04:38into how language, in fact, did evolve.
0:04:39 > 0:04:43And that's essentially why I started Project Nim.
0:04:44 > 0:04:45PHONE RINGING
0:04:46 > 0:04:48(Stephanie) I don't know what was in his mind, but he just called.
0:04:50 > 0:04:54He was asking me to bring an infant chimpanzee into my home,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59raise this infant as if he were a child,
0:04:59 > 0:05:02and see if he acquired language
0:05:02 > 0:05:05as a function of being part of a family.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09(Herb) Stephanie was a former student of mine.
0:05:10 > 0:05:15She had a large family of her own children and her husband's children,
0:05:15 > 0:05:18was exceedingly empathic and warm.
0:05:18 > 0:05:20A chimp could not have a better mother.
0:05:23 > 0:05:25(Stephanie) I know nothing about chimpanzees,
0:05:25 > 0:05:29and I never actually sat down to study them
0:05:31 > 0:05:33as one could have. As I should have, perhaps.
0:05:33 > 0:05:37But my appetite and my drive to have that intimate a relationship
0:05:37 > 0:05:41with an animal was... Nothing would have stopped that.
0:05:42 > 0:05:46The fact that we could share language with an animal
0:05:46 > 0:05:50seemed like a very radical possibility at that time.
0:05:51 > 0:05:53(Herb) It had been known for some time
0:05:53 > 0:05:56that chimps aren't able to make the sounds of human language.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59- Do this, Viki. (BLOWS RASPBERRY) - (BLOWS RASPBERRY)
0:05:59 > 0:06:02So why not teach them sign language?
0:06:04 > 0:06:05The real breakthrough would be
0:06:06 > 0:06:08if, like human children, a chimpanzee
0:06:08 > 0:06:11could create grammatical sentences.
0:06:13 > 0:06:18So, without much preparation and without really asking permission
0:06:18 > 0:06:21of my children, my husband, I said, "Fine, I can do it."
0:06:21 > 0:06:26"I even have the funds to do it with. We don't need to worry about money. "
0:06:26 > 0:06:30And so it was launched. The experiment was launched.
0:06:32 > 0:06:34(Herb) When Nim came to New York, he was barely two weeks old.
0:06:35 > 0:06:39The idea was that he would be treated, in every way, like a human infant.
0:06:43 > 0:06:47(Stephanie) I had recently moved to a brownstone on the Upper West Side
0:06:47 > 0:06:49with my three children
0:06:50 > 0:06:52and with my husband, who had four children, Wer Lafarge.
0:06:54 > 0:06:58Wer was a poet and a writer.
0:06:59 > 0:07:03He redefined himself, became what, at that time, was called a rich hippie.
0:07:09 > 0:07:13A new husband, new family, new house,
0:07:13 > 0:07:18and I brought Nim into that rather turbulent situation.
0:07:22 > 0:07:26(Jenny) It just happened. There was no family discussion about,
0:07:26 > 0:07:28"Should we? Shouldn't we?"
0:07:28 > 0:07:30It was just, "Oh, we're having a chimp."
0:07:30 > 0:07:33We're going to teach it sign language.
0:07:34 > 0:07:37And then the reality of it is sort of hitting you that it's really...
0:07:37 > 0:07:40You know, it's alive, it's not a doll, it's not a toy,
0:07:41 > 0:07:46it's not a human, it's a chimp and it's an amazing, sweet little
0:07:46 > 0:07:50newborn baby, needy creature, so...
0:07:52 > 0:07:55I think I fell in love instantly.
0:07:57 > 0:07:59(Stephanie) Nim didn't like Wer.
0:08:00 > 0:08:04And Wer didn't like him.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Almost instantly I saw how complicated this was going to be.
0:08:10 > 0:08:12(Jenny) I think Wer went along with it.
0:08:13 > 0:08:16It was clearly Stephanie sort of saying, "Let's have a chimp."
0:08:18 > 0:08:20It was the '70s! LAUGHS
0:08:22 > 0:08:25(Stephanie) I breast-fed him for a couple of months.
0:08:25 > 0:08:27It seemed completely natural.
0:08:29 > 0:08:32Everything was about treating him like a human being.
0:08:35 > 0:08:39By the time I had Nim, of course, I felt very comfortable with babies.
0:08:40 > 0:08:43I wasn't prepared at all for the wild animal in him
0:08:44 > 0:08:46and the drive.
0:08:51 > 0:08:54By the time he was three months old, I think,
0:08:55 > 0:08:57and starting to be ambulatory,
0:08:57 > 0:09:00he was just right there,
0:09:00 > 0:09:04nothing passive, nothing passive, ever.
0:09:09 > 0:09:13I think he figured that he could just get in between Wer and Stephanie
0:09:14 > 0:09:15on some level.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24And Wer put his arm around her, and Nim just, you know,
0:09:25 > 0:09:28half asleep, having a bottle,
0:09:28 > 0:09:31turned and bit Wer on the arm quite hard.
0:09:33 > 0:09:35He didn't want Wer in the picture.
0:09:36 > 0:09:38He wanted Stephanie all for himself.
0:09:40 > 0:09:42(Stephanie) Wer definitely felt excluded.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46Nim had just become part of my being.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51That was incompatible with the role that I played as wife.
0:09:53 > 0:09:55PHONE RINGING
0:09:59 > 0:10:02(Jenny) "Herb's coming, Herb's coming, Herb's coming. "
0:10:02 > 0:10:04"Herb's coming" was a big deal.
0:10:06 > 0:10:10(Herb) I would just go over and visit , just to see what his state was
0:10:10 > 0:10:12and how he was getting along.
0:10:13 > 0:10:16(Stephanie) Herb was infinitely exciting.
0:10:16 > 0:10:22I admired his intellect and his goals and his arrogance, all those things.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30There was something that didn't sit right with me about him.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38(Stephanie) The people that I am the closest to, throughout my life,
0:10:38 > 0:10:42are people that I have had some period of sexual contact with.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48I don't think that the previous sexual relationship
0:10:48 > 0:10:50between Herb and myself
0:10:50 > 0:10:52made a difference to the project at all,
0:10:54 > 0:10:57other than it was part of the glue
0:10:58 > 0:10:59that allowed it to happen.
0:11:03 > 0:11:05Herb didn't come very much.
0:11:06 > 0:11:09He wasn't part of the caretaking package at all.
0:11:11 > 0:11:13Young newborn chimps
0:11:13 > 0:11:16are always raised by their mothers, not by their fathers.
0:11:17 > 0:11:20And I didn't see any way of trying to change...
0:11:20 > 0:11:22Or any point in trying to change that.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29For better or worse, I never regarded him as a child.
0:11:29 > 0:11:31I regarded him
0:11:32 > 0:11:35as an intelligent, personable centre of a scientific project.
0:11:38 > 0:11:42I had an implicit faith that Nim would learn signs.
0:11:43 > 0:11:45We had to wait and see.
0:11:48 > 0:11:51(Stephanie) How do they start teaching the child to sign?
0:11:51 > 0:11:55Does the child just watch and... Whatever. I don't know.
0:11:55 > 0:11:57It was a problem. We were trying to teach this chimp sign language
0:11:57 > 0:12:00and nobody in the house really was fluent in sign language.
0:12:00 > 0:12:03We would mould his hand into the sign for "drink", which is this,
0:12:04 > 0:12:07and then give him the bottle to drink.
0:12:17 > 0:12:18It just happened.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21(Stephanie) It was just amazing.
0:12:22 > 0:12:24And I thought, "Piece of cake."
0:12:25 > 0:12:27I was absolutely delighted.
0:12:28 > 0:12:31He picked up quite a few signs after that rather quickly.
0:12:34 > 0:12:36"Eat", "me", "Nim"
0:12:36 > 0:12:39were part of his first signs.
0:12:39 > 0:12:40"Hug" was another one.
0:12:44 > 0:12:46And it was as if, then, "OK, we're off.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49"Now we just got to build up the vocabulary. "
0:12:50 > 0:12:52As much as we were moulding him,
0:12:52 > 0:12:55we were moulding these damn hands and all this stuff,
0:12:55 > 0:12:57he was starting to mould us.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01He knew every dynamic that was in the room, instantly.
0:13:03 > 0:13:05(Jenny) He knew when you were upset.
0:13:05 > 0:13:08Whatever had happened in, you know, a 13-, 14-year-old's life.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14And he would come over and he would just come and sit with you and hug you,
0:13:14 > 0:13:16and then just kiss the tears away.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20You know, it was amazing. Just unconditional.
0:13:23 > 0:13:26(Stephanie) He was my life line, he was my buddy,
0:13:26 > 0:13:29and he was bringing something out in me,
0:13:30 > 0:13:34a freedom to defy expectation and authority.
0:13:35 > 0:13:39His greatest focus of defiance was against Wer.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44(Jenny) He would kind of pull books off the shelves,
0:13:44 > 0:13:46and Wer liked his books a certain way.
0:13:46 > 0:13:50When he saw Wer coming, he would really do it.
0:13:52 > 0:13:53It was very focused. It was intentional.
0:13:53 > 0:13:55"Fuck you, I'm touching these."
0:13:59 > 0:14:00It was a problem.
0:14:02 > 0:14:04(Stephanie) Wer was so impotent.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09I mean, what could he do? He'd chase him around. "Drop that! Blah, blah."
0:14:09 > 0:14:11I mean, he won every time.
0:14:19 > 0:14:24Nim saw Herb as his next adult male challenge.
0:14:25 > 0:14:27I mean, that is the life that he's hard-wired for.
0:14:28 > 0:14:32To take on increasingly powerful male figures until he's the top.
0:14:33 > 0:14:36When Herb would come over, expecting to step in
0:14:36 > 0:14:39and have control of Nim, and he couldn't and didn't,
0:14:40 > 0:14:42we loved it. We loved it.
0:14:46 > 0:14:47(Herb) I cornered Nim
0:14:48 > 0:14:51and just went to pull him out of some
0:14:52 > 0:14:54hiding place, and he bit me.
0:14:56 > 0:14:59(Stephanie) Frankly, everybody in the family got a kick out of Nim
0:14:59 > 0:15:01doing just what Herb hated.
0:15:03 > 0:15:04No-one ever put him in his place,
0:15:04 > 0:15:07and he just grew more and more and more powerful,
0:15:08 > 0:15:10and that was exciting to me.
0:15:15 > 0:15:17We didn't have to try to control him in any way. In fact,
0:15:17 > 0:15:21we enjoyed just letting him hang out and see how it went.
0:15:29 > 0:15:31(Herb) Stephanie being the kind of mother she was,
0:15:31 > 0:15:33was not very concerned about discipline.
0:15:34 > 0:15:37It was sort of the hippie mentality,
0:15:38 > 0:15:41and I think what I would tell her would go in one ear and out the other.
0:15:46 > 0:15:50(Stephanie) Herb would have wanted a schedule and a structure
0:15:50 > 0:15:54and charted progress and notes and all of that.
0:15:57 > 0:16:00I didn't supply that, I couldn't create that,
0:16:00 > 0:16:03and I don't think Nim would have thrived in that.
0:16:16 > 0:16:18(Laura) I was taking classes at Columbia University
0:16:19 > 0:16:22and there was a small sign that said,
0:16:22 > 0:16:25"Research assistant needed, course credit granted. "
0:16:30 > 0:16:31A man opened the door
0:16:32 > 0:16:34and he was completely breathless.
0:16:35 > 0:16:39Also, he's one of those men who was balding on the top.
0:16:39 > 0:16:41So he had his hair pasted down,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44but he was so upset and dishevelled
0:16:44 > 0:16:47that his hair was standing straight up on one side.
0:16:50 > 0:16:52He explained it was a language project
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and I immediately understood the scientific relevance.
0:16:59 > 0:17:02Nim was going to test the nature-versus-nurture hypotheses
0:17:02 > 0:17:04that were prevailing at the time.
0:17:06 > 0:17:08It really was at the cusp of science.
0:17:10 > 0:17:12(Herb) You know, some things are just
0:17:12 > 0:17:14immediately obvious about someone from the beginning.
0:17:15 > 0:17:17You know what kind of person you have.
0:17:19 > 0:17:21I think she was 18, if I'm not mistaken.
0:17:23 > 0:17:27(Laura) At the time, Nim was in Stephanie Lafarge's house,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30and my first job was to basically baby-sit.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34To go to the house and ostensibly teach him sign language.
0:17:35 > 0:17:37She came out of nowhere as a
0:17:39 > 0:17:40cute little thing from Ramapo.
0:17:42 > 0:17:45(Laura) When I got there, I was actually really surprised.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49There was utter chaos.
0:17:49 > 0:17:53There was nothing. This was a scientific project.
0:17:55 > 0:17:58There were no journals. There were no log books.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01They didn't know who was covering Nim,
0:18:01 > 0:18:02when they were going to be covering Nim,
0:18:02 > 0:18:05who would be teaching Nim, when they would be teaching Nim.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08They didn't know what they were going to teach Nim.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11(Stephanie) She quickly felt her power.
0:18:11 > 0:18:13It was completely visible.
0:18:13 > 0:18:17Everybody had to adapt to it.
0:18:17 > 0:18:19She wanted that mother role.
0:18:20 > 0:18:22This animal
0:18:23 > 0:18:25climbed the walls all day.
0:18:25 > 0:18:29He ripped apart Stephanie's house all day.
0:18:31 > 0:18:36The kinds of things she was exposing Nim to were atypical.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44(Stephanie) He loved driving fast in cars. He loved motorcycles.
0:18:44 > 0:18:47He loved, you know, virtually anything thrilling.
0:18:50 > 0:18:54He liked alcohol. You'd give him a sip and he'd want more.
0:18:56 > 0:18:58We gave him puffs on a joint.
0:19:06 > 0:19:08We didn't have to treat him like a child.
0:19:08 > 0:19:12We could expose him to the sensations that we enjoyed.
0:19:14 > 0:19:19I had an instinctive sense that something was very amiss here,
0:19:20 > 0:19:24that this is not the way you teach a child language
0:19:25 > 0:19:27or you interact with a child
0:19:27 > 0:19:30or you teach anything language.
0:19:32 > 0:19:36(Stephanie) When Nim began to
0:19:36 > 0:19:39discover my body, my nakedness, he'd be curious.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43Like a child, he was uninterested and then one day he was interested.
0:19:49 > 0:19:53I never felt sexually engaged with him.
0:19:53 > 0:19:58There was a sensuality, but Nim was, you know, a pre-teen.
0:20:00 > 0:20:04(Laura) Stephanie was a graduate student in psychoanalysis.
0:20:04 > 0:20:08Her questions had to do with the oedipal complex.
0:20:08 > 0:20:11And she was interested in Nim's masturbation
0:20:11 > 0:20:13and how he masturbated. I couldn't believe it.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21I realised that I could not do what I call good science
0:20:21 > 0:20:23in Stephanie's home. It just wasn't conducive to that.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29So I set up a classroom at Columbia.
0:20:31 > 0:20:33(Stephanie) He's gonna take Nim to school
0:20:33 > 0:20:36and I realise I'm starting to lose my role
0:20:36 > 0:20:39as the person who knows the best what he needs.
0:20:41 > 0:20:43(Laura) We had to get him in a context that was
0:20:43 > 0:20:47neutral, calming, soothing.
0:20:50 > 0:20:54I just mapped out a teaching plan for Nim
0:20:54 > 0:20:55and I did it.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59(Herb) She was so enthusiastic about this
0:20:59 > 0:21:03that I made her, in a sense,
0:21:03 > 0:21:06the director of education, the curriculum.
0:21:08 > 0:21:10(Laura) I was feeling good about myself.
0:21:10 > 0:21:11Also, I was succeeding with Nim.
0:21:12 > 0:21:13I could see I was succeeding with Nim.
0:21:13 > 0:21:18I can see it, I can see that no-one could hold a candle to me.
0:21:19 > 0:21:23The only thing that mattered to him... It became more and more tense.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28Words, words, words, words, words, word order, word order, word order.
0:21:28 > 0:21:30He couldn't see anything else.
0:21:30 > 0:21:34Herb started seeing the signs grow on that little graph.
0:21:34 > 0:21:38Every day, every other day, every three days.
0:21:38 > 0:21:41Laura taught him another sign. Laura taught him another sign.
0:21:43 > 0:21:45And I just went hell for leather.
0:21:48 > 0:21:53(Herb) Nim's signing was just almost exponentially increasing.
0:21:53 > 0:21:54I was very happy.
0:21:56 > 0:21:59Words are a fucking nightmare
0:21:59 > 0:22:03when it comes to closeness, often.
0:22:04 > 0:22:09And here I was, married to a poet, working for a linguist...
0:22:10 > 0:22:13You know, words became the enemy.
0:22:14 > 0:22:19She started restricting the times we can come in the house.
0:22:20 > 0:22:23She started throwing us out.
0:22:23 > 0:22:25She, apparently, was
0:22:26 > 0:22:29encouraged to believe that she was now the mother.
0:22:31 > 0:22:34(Laura) Stephanie began to threaten to take Nim away from Herb.
0:22:38 > 0:22:40And Herb started panicking.
0:22:42 > 0:22:46I definitely initiated the move out of Stephanie's house.
0:22:46 > 0:22:49I think she was initially quite resistant to it,
0:22:49 > 0:22:53especially since she didn't know exactly how Nim was going to end up.
0:22:54 > 0:22:56God had spoken. That's what had happened.
0:22:56 > 0:22:59That's what was going on. And we didn't have control.
0:23:07 > 0:23:12So... my separation from him was just as abrupt, in a way,
0:23:12 > 0:23:16at that moment, as his was from Carolyn's.
0:23:18 > 0:23:23I was ostensibly conscious, but I was no less...
0:23:23 > 0:23:26I was as unaware
0:23:26 > 0:23:31and, you know, un-in charge and helpless as she was.
0:23:33 > 0:23:35It...
0:23:39 > 0:23:41It was heart-breaking,
0:23:46 > 0:23:48saying goodbye.
0:23:52 > 0:23:56(Stephanie) Part of me did not want him to learn language.
0:23:59 > 0:24:01He was less with language
0:24:02 > 0:24:04than he was as his unique self.
0:24:23 > 0:24:26(Herb) At that time, a very lucky thing happened.
0:24:28 > 0:24:33I was aware that there was an estate that Columbia owned in Riverdale,
0:24:33 > 0:24:38a very large estate, that used to be the home of the President.
0:24:39 > 0:24:41And I went to him with a proposition
0:24:41 > 0:24:45that if he allowed me to raise the chimp there, I'd pay for the heat.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48And he said "Sure."
0:24:58 > 0:25:02(Laura) This was amazing! This was a fairy tale.
0:25:04 > 0:25:08(Herb) It was a 28-acre estate
0:25:08 > 0:25:10surrounded by lovely gardens.
0:25:11 > 0:25:15And that allowed me to put up Nim's teachers
0:25:15 > 0:25:18in magnificent surroundings and not pay any rent.
0:25:20 > 0:25:21Life was good.
0:25:23 > 0:25:25(Laura) Nim got out of the car,
0:25:26 > 0:25:28ran up to the front door,
0:25:28 > 0:25:31rolled down the hill, and he was gone.
0:25:32 > 0:25:34He was free.
0:25:43 > 0:25:45So, there was no reaction at having taken him
0:25:45 > 0:25:47out of Stephanie's house.
0:25:49 > 0:25:54He was fine. And it was like he had been there his whole life.
0:26:00 > 0:26:03(Herb) He certainly was a different chimpanzee in this mansion
0:26:03 > 0:26:05than he was with Stephanie.
0:26:06 > 0:26:09So, I sort of got into more,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12you know, interacting with him.
0:26:15 > 0:26:17(Laura) Herb's power as a professor,
0:26:18 > 0:26:20his age,
0:26:20 > 0:26:23completely impacted me.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26He was my model.
0:26:27 > 0:26:29(Herb) We really clicked together.
0:26:32 > 0:26:37(Laura) I wanted so much to be a part of his world.
0:26:38 > 0:26:41I wanted to be in that world of academia.
0:26:43 > 0:26:46(Herb) I had strong personal feelings about Laura,
0:26:49 > 0:26:53but I don't think that in any way got in the way of our science.
0:27:03 > 0:27:07(Laura) Some of the daily bodily requirements that Nim had
0:27:08 > 0:27:10had to be addressed, and very quickly.
0:27:13 > 0:27:17I eventually couldn't handle the diapers any more.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20He was getting bigger and he was eating more of our food,
0:27:20 > 0:27:23so pragmatically I had to get him off those diapers.
0:27:26 > 0:27:29I watched his facial expressions when he needed the potty
0:27:29 > 0:27:33and I began to see it and grab him and bring him to the potty.
0:27:35 > 0:27:38(Herb) He did actually use the toilet correctly,
0:27:38 > 0:27:43but it was certainly not as reliable as what you'd see in a child.
0:27:48 > 0:27:51(Laura) The idea was that I would live with Nim
0:27:51 > 0:27:56and I would train him for a certain period of time in the house,
0:27:56 > 0:28:00but then I would bring him in every day to Columbia University.
0:28:03 > 0:28:06(Bill) This was an experiment to teach or see
0:28:07 > 0:28:09if a chimpanzee can learn sign language.
0:28:10 > 0:28:13I just thought it was really intellectually interesting.
0:28:14 > 0:28:18Interesting to understand how much chimpanzees are like us
0:28:18 > 0:28:20and how much they're not.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24At that time he was terribly cute
0:28:24 > 0:28:27and getting little photos in New York magazine.
0:28:28 > 0:28:30There was a daily lesson plan, if you will.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33We were supposed to teach these particular signs to Nim
0:28:34 > 0:28:38and they were supposed to also teach him everyday activities.
0:28:39 > 0:28:43Dress yourself, undress yourself, this sort of thing.
0:28:44 > 0:28:46(Herb) Like children after they learn a few words,
0:28:46 > 0:28:49Nim has spontaneously put signs together.
0:28:50 > 0:28:52In many instances we allow Nim
0:28:52 > 0:28:55to use his own signs, that he almost invents,
0:28:55 > 0:28:57so long as they're consistent.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01For example, this is the sign for "play" that he invented.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05He's learning signs rapidly. They're going up, up, up, up, up.
0:29:06 > 0:29:08(Herb) The project was literally humming.
0:29:08 > 0:29:11You know, everything was going very smoothly.
0:29:11 > 0:29:14I have a chimpanzee who was making history.
0:29:15 > 0:29:18We did get a grant somewhere in that time.
0:29:18 > 0:29:21(Laura) The project had begun to enter the media,
0:29:21 > 0:29:25so there was all this excitement and hype about the project.
0:29:25 > 0:29:26We were thrilled.
0:29:31 > 0:29:33We've probably all seen performing chimpanzees
0:29:33 > 0:29:35on television or in circuses,
0:29:35 > 0:29:37but Nim is no ordinary chimp.
0:29:38 > 0:29:41Since he was a few weeks old, Nim has lived in a close association
0:29:42 > 0:29:44with a group of scientists under the direction of
0:29:44 > 0:29:47Dr Herbert Terrace of Columbia University.
0:29:47 > 0:29:49They're performing a unique experiment
0:29:49 > 0:29:53to try to determine whether apes can be taught to communicate with humans
0:29:53 > 0:29:55using language.
0:29:56 > 0:29:57How big will he be when he's full-grown?
0:29:58 > 0:29:59Oh, he's going to be big.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03He's going to be about 5 feet tall, perhaps 150 pounds,
0:30:03 > 0:30:06and supposedly five to six times the strength of a man.
0:30:06 > 0:30:08How are you going to be able to handle him then?
0:30:10 > 0:30:12(Bill) He had grown.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14I guess he was probably something like that.
0:30:16 > 0:30:20If you had to hold him, you really had to hold him.
0:30:20 > 0:30:23And he'd gone from being this meek little huggable toy
0:30:24 > 0:30:28to quite a robust young chimpanzee.
0:30:32 > 0:30:34His eye teeth were never taken out,
0:30:34 > 0:30:38which means that he's got fangs, essentially, sitting here.
0:30:38 > 0:30:39Extremely strong jaw.
0:30:39 > 0:30:43If you didn't assert dominance in some fashion,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45you were going to be in trouble eventually.
0:30:48 > 0:30:50(Herb) He could size somebody up in two seconds.
0:30:51 > 0:30:55Whether they were confident or secretly unconfident.
0:30:56 > 0:30:58(Laura) If I stood up too quickly,
0:30:58 > 0:31:02if I accidentally showed him my back too quickly,
0:31:02 > 0:31:06if I had food and I didn't think to share it with him,
0:31:06 > 0:31:08he'd cross that threshold and go into attack.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14(Bill) You could tell that he was getting an attitude.
0:31:14 > 0:31:16The hair would go up on his arms
0:31:16 > 0:31:19and he'd sort of get this look in his face.
0:31:20 > 0:31:21HOOTS ANGRILY
0:31:21 > 0:31:23When he would bark,
0:31:23 > 0:31:25I'd feel it inside,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27the danger.
0:31:29 > 0:31:31He had to lunge.
0:31:31 > 0:31:35The contact, the rip, the tear and the release.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37And he had to draw blood.
0:31:40 > 0:31:44(Herb) She did not tell me that in an alarming manner.
0:31:44 > 0:31:45She was just reporting it.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48Maybe I was just too
0:31:49 > 0:31:51looking ahead with blinkers and not wanting to hear that.
0:31:51 > 0:31:53This is 37 stitches.
0:31:54 > 0:31:56I had four here,
0:31:56 > 0:31:59nine here. This one
0:31:59 > 0:32:00sent me into the hospital.
0:32:00 > 0:32:03This one actually was the most dangerous one because he hit a tendon.
0:32:17 > 0:32:18(Joyce) It's a lot of work
0:32:19 > 0:32:21to take care of an animal that's not your species
0:32:21 > 0:32:23who has that kind of energy level.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26I probably didn't know the difference between chimpanzees and monkeys.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30So, I was as blind and as ignorant
0:32:30 > 0:32:32and as naive as probably they came.
0:32:32 > 0:32:33I was on a quick learning curve.
0:32:36 > 0:32:39I have high energy and enthusiasm for a goal.
0:32:40 > 0:32:41And he was my goal, apparently.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44(Laura) Joyce was a great teacher.
0:32:44 > 0:32:49She signed, she was completely dedicated and motivated.
0:32:49 > 0:32:53She wanted to do this. This was fantastic!
0:32:55 > 0:32:59(Joyce) He bit me really hard, and I bit him on the ear right then and there,
0:32:59 > 0:33:03and I said, "That's over. You will never bite me again." And he never did.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09He did like a lot of human body contact.
0:33:11 > 0:33:13Typically, when we would leave the property,
0:33:13 > 0:33:15he would be really attached to you.
0:33:17 > 0:33:20The world would scare him, so he would always come close.
0:33:27 > 0:33:30Bill and I hung tight with Nim.
0:33:31 > 0:33:34(Bill) We sort of hit it off on a lot of our different thinking.
0:33:35 > 0:33:39She and I got together as a couple. LAUGHS
0:33:39 > 0:33:42(Joyce) It helped that we liked each other.
0:33:42 > 0:33:44And I think that that helped Nim's life
0:33:44 > 0:33:47because we enjoyed each other's company,
0:33:47 > 0:33:49so we would do things together
0:33:49 > 0:33:51and we would hang out as kind of a unit.
0:33:57 > 0:33:59Oh, he loved the cats.
0:34:00 > 0:34:03(Bill) He was really, really tender with the cat, and he'd hold it,
0:34:03 > 0:34:06and he sort of liked the feel, the touch. Something about it.
0:34:09 > 0:34:11He would hold her and be like...
0:34:11 > 0:34:12And you could see him, like, shaking
0:34:12 > 0:34:14because he'd be so excited that he had her.
0:34:15 > 0:34:18(LAUGHS) He actually kind of pushed her down on the ground
0:34:18 > 0:34:20and then curled around her,
0:34:20 > 0:34:23and just laid there, like, "I'm in heaven."
0:34:39 > 0:34:41(Bill) I would say that it was fairly clear
0:34:41 > 0:34:43that there was something more going on than the project,
0:34:44 > 0:34:46at least from his side.
0:34:48 > 0:34:50And I think we all felt it and we kind of had...
0:34:51 > 0:34:53I don't want to say resentment, but it was like,
0:34:53 > 0:34:56"Oh, jeez, would he stop this Laura thing?"
0:34:57 > 0:35:00If someone showed me some attention,
0:35:00 > 0:35:03I thought it meant that they cared for me.
0:35:05 > 0:35:07He had power.
0:35:10 > 0:35:14I'm sure that, you know, unconsciously I took advantage of that.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18Somebody admires you,
0:35:18 > 0:35:19um, why not...
0:35:22 > 0:35:24So, yeah, we very briefly got involved
0:35:25 > 0:35:29and he very, very briefly and abruptly got out of it.
0:35:32 > 0:35:36The entanglement completely affected my decision to leave.
0:35:37 > 0:35:40It's the humans I wanted to leave, not the chimp.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44Herb didn't want it to happen.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48He went into a very enthusiastic mode
0:35:48 > 0:35:50of trying to convince me not to go.
0:35:50 > 0:35:52I wasn't panicked.
0:35:52 > 0:35:54I wasn't panicked that the project was just going to
0:35:54 > 0:35:56grind to a halt because Laura left.
0:35:57 > 0:36:01As I recall, Joyce and Bill pretty much took care of that.
0:36:01 > 0:36:05So... I didn't lose any crucial aspect of the project.
0:36:12 > 0:36:16I started to go to get the boxes to leave,
0:36:17 > 0:36:20and Nim pulled loose from the person's hand,
0:36:21 > 0:36:24he climbs to the second floor of the house.
0:36:24 > 0:36:28Then he must have lunged 25 feet.
0:36:30 > 0:36:32He landed on me.
0:36:34 > 0:36:40He took my head and he started pounding it into the pavement.
0:36:42 > 0:36:45It took four males to get him off me.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57He wasn't my child.
0:36:57 > 0:36:58He wasn't my baby.
0:36:59 > 0:37:04You can't give human nurturing to an animal that could kill you.
0:37:16 > 0:37:19(Herb) One of the easy parts of the project
0:37:19 > 0:37:22was to advertise for teachers.
0:37:23 > 0:37:25It was like, "Uh, this is nice."
0:37:26 > 0:37:30I didn't set out to have women on the project predominantly,
0:37:30 > 0:37:32but it certainly turned out that way.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36And if that's the way it turned out, that's the way it turned out.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39(Renee) I was a trained interpreter for the deaf.
0:37:39 > 0:37:40When I set my mind to something,
0:37:40 > 0:37:42I get what I want.
0:37:43 > 0:37:45I kept saying, "I want to live here."
0:37:45 > 0:37:47"When I am moving in? When do I get to move in?"
0:37:47 > 0:37:49And I would annoy Herb.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51And finally he let me move in.
0:37:52 > 0:37:54(Bill) Probably, as time went on,
0:37:55 > 0:37:58it may have become more difficult for women to work with him.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02He was going to take advantage of them
0:38:02 > 0:38:04and he was big enough and strong enough that he could.
0:38:06 > 0:38:08(Renee) I mean, it hurt! His bites hurt.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11When he bit your hand, he got the nerve.
0:38:11 > 0:38:13And you'd get a running shock up your arm.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19We had epic battles, but we made up.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23He'd make that face and sign "sorry".
0:38:25 > 0:38:27So, "Well, if I sign this, she'll forgive me. "
0:38:29 > 0:38:31I had a relationship with a chimpanzee,
0:38:31 > 0:38:33and I had conversations with another species.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39(Joyce) It's not just him signing that was important to me.
0:38:39 > 0:38:42It was what he was thinking and experiencing,
0:38:42 > 0:38:45because we would talk when we would hang out.
0:38:45 > 0:38:46We would talk about the things we would see,
0:38:46 > 0:38:48the things we would hear.
0:38:50 > 0:38:51As far as I'm concerned,
0:38:51 > 0:38:53our classroom was the house and the yard
0:38:53 > 0:38:56and the field trips that we would take.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08(Herb) Science is a very objective enterprise.
0:39:08 > 0:39:11You can't have personal anecdotes of how I worked with Nim
0:39:11 > 0:39:13up at Delafield as opposed to the classroom.
0:39:14 > 0:39:17That's just of no interest to a scientist.
0:39:18 > 0:39:21Joyce did not see anything special about the classroom.
0:39:22 > 0:39:25Hated it. Hated it, hated it. He hated it. We hated it.
0:39:25 > 0:39:29That's not surprising, because she didn't get the results in the classroom
0:39:30 > 0:39:31that I was hoping for.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35- Do you know what time it is? - (MAN) Yeah.
0:39:35 > 0:39:37(Bill) Going into a dungeon of a classroom, which it really was.
0:39:37 > 0:39:39I mean, the thing was 15 feet square,
0:39:39 > 0:39:42including the observation booth and everything else.
0:39:43 > 0:39:45No windows, no place really to have any activity.
0:39:45 > 0:39:47Trying to get Nim's attention
0:39:47 > 0:39:48was a bit of a struggle,
0:39:48 > 0:39:51and he would rather have been doing something else.
0:39:55 > 0:39:56Pay attention to me.
0:40:00 > 0:40:01Shh!
0:40:03 > 0:40:05So, this is the sign for "dirty",
0:40:05 > 0:40:09so we used it for "toilet" for him because it's a contact sign.
0:40:12 > 0:40:15He would jump through the signs that I asked him to jump through
0:40:15 > 0:40:16and then he would have had enough.
0:40:16 > 0:40:19And he would say, "I need to go to the bathroom."
0:40:26 > 0:40:27And that's when I knew,
0:40:28 > 0:40:29you little bugger.
0:40:30 > 0:40:32You used that sign
0:40:32 > 0:40:34because you knew it would make us leave there
0:40:34 > 0:40:36and get us out of there.
0:40:41 > 0:40:43(Bill) He was growing smarter and smarter.
0:40:44 > 0:40:47And smarter in the sense of recognising situations
0:40:47 > 0:40:51that he could take advantage of, of when he could get what he wanted.
0:41:01 > 0:41:04(Renee) He was starting to discover himself.
0:41:05 > 0:41:08There was a big rock in the front yard and he used to like to hump it.
0:41:09 > 0:41:12And we'd say, "You're gonna hurt yourself. That's a rock."
0:41:12 > 0:41:14Like, look at himself and go, "What's that?"
0:41:14 > 0:41:18As this whole thing with the physicality became an issue,
0:41:18 > 0:41:20we were much more cautious, I think,
0:41:20 > 0:41:22about letting the cats around him,
0:41:22 > 0:41:25and letting him play with the cats.
0:41:28 > 0:41:29(Joyce) He would even try to,
0:41:29 > 0:41:32not engage directly in sexual relationships with the animals,
0:41:32 > 0:41:37but definitely to bring them to him and to his penis area.
0:41:42 > 0:41:45And I just said, "No, that's not what they're there for. "
0:41:52 > 0:41:55(Herb) We realised, I think all of us, that it was becoming
0:41:55 > 0:41:59increasingly difficult to pursue the experiment.
0:42:00 > 0:42:03(Renee) Nim was scratching hard, he was biting harder,
0:42:03 > 0:42:05biting more often, biting more people.
0:42:07 > 0:42:10(Bill) We had mentioned the growing concern that we had
0:42:10 > 0:42:12about how to deal with Nim.
0:42:12 > 0:42:14NIM SCREECHES
0:42:15 > 0:42:18Dr Terrace was pretty much an absentee landlord.
0:42:18 > 0:42:19(Joyce) Herb was never alone with Nim,
0:42:20 > 0:42:22and Herb never had to spend any kind of time with him.
0:42:24 > 0:42:26Once in a while, you know, photo shoots.
0:42:26 > 0:42:29For him to either take photos or for him to have photos taken of him.
0:42:32 > 0:42:35(Herb) Yes, there were occasional bites.
0:42:36 > 0:42:39I imagine they increased in frequency just because Nim was getting older.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43In that sense, he was becoming more chimp-like.
0:42:45 > 0:42:48But it didn't seem to be a cause for alarm at that point.
0:42:50 > 0:42:53(Renee) It was the end of July, it was July 28th,
0:42:54 > 0:42:58and Bill had him, and we did the body-to-body transfer.
0:43:01 > 0:43:03I mean, you're holding Nim
0:43:03 > 0:43:05and the other person comes up
0:43:05 > 0:43:08and you just kind of hand the chimp to the other person.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11And I said, "Come on." And I got the tether.
0:43:12 > 0:43:14You know, you've got the loop first
0:43:14 > 0:43:16and I then tied it to my belt.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21"Come here." And he came over and he put his arms around me.
0:43:23 > 0:43:24He just crunched my face.
0:43:26 > 0:43:28It just happened.
0:43:30 > 0:43:33And I grabbed Nim and just dragged him into the house.
0:43:33 > 0:43:35And he was like, (exclaims) "Sorry, sorry, sorry!"
0:43:35 > 0:43:38"No, no, no." And I passed that armoire with that mirror
0:43:38 > 0:43:41and saw all this blood. He had bit through my cheek
0:43:42 > 0:43:44almost to the inside of my mouth.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47It was folded over, so you could see inside my face.
0:43:52 > 0:43:55I don't recall if she went to the emergency room,
0:43:55 > 0:43:56but I think something like that happened.
0:43:59 > 0:44:03It was just bad.
0:44:04 > 0:44:06I was probably worried that she would sue me,
0:44:08 > 0:44:10or this would become public,
0:44:11 > 0:44:13this would become public knowledge about how
0:44:15 > 0:44:17life-threatening the project might be.
0:44:17 > 0:44:19They couldn't sew it
0:44:19 > 0:44:21because of the infection and the risk of infection,
0:44:21 > 0:44:25so I had an open gaping wound on my face for three months.
0:44:35 > 0:44:37And when I got out the hospital, I said,
0:44:37 > 0:44:39"You know what? I want to see Nim."
0:44:39 > 0:44:41He went... (GRUNTS)
0:44:41 > 0:44:43And he went to reach for my face again. I went, "Whoa!"
0:44:43 > 0:44:46"That's it. I don't need closure now. I'm out of here."
0:44:47 > 0:44:49I was scared.
0:44:50 > 0:44:53I'm tenacious and I didn't want to let go.
0:44:54 > 0:44:56Sort of like breaking up with a bad boyfriend.
0:45:01 > 0:45:04(Herb) I was sorry that it came to that,
0:45:04 > 0:45:08but you just don't know how Nim is going to change
0:45:08 > 0:45:10and you just can't count on
0:45:10 > 0:45:13having outstanding teachers all the time.
0:45:22 > 0:45:25I felt I was spreading myself too thinly
0:45:25 > 0:45:27and experiencing too much stress
0:45:28 > 0:45:31and not enough, you know, good results.
0:45:35 > 0:45:38Nobody keeps a chimp for more than five years,
0:45:38 > 0:45:41because at five years, they don't know their own strength
0:45:42 > 0:45:44and they can do a lot of damage to people.
0:45:50 > 0:45:53He called us together and dropped the bomb and said, "It's over."
0:45:57 > 0:45:59I was one very angry young woman.
0:46:05 > 0:46:08You don't say, "We're not doing this any more."
0:46:08 > 0:46:12And because Herb had that card to play,
0:46:12 > 0:46:14he played it, cos he was in the power seat.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20(Herb) I think I said,
0:46:21 > 0:46:24"There's no point of this going on scientifically. "
0:46:27 > 0:46:29I felt that Nim had progressed a lot,
0:46:29 > 0:46:32and we hadn't had the chance to really analyse our data.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35I just knew that we had reams of data.
0:46:39 > 0:46:42(Bill) This whole mass of data that needed to be organised,
0:46:42 > 0:46:46and that was going to be a long and tedious process.
0:46:47 > 0:46:48(Herb) The fundamental question was,
0:46:49 > 0:46:50"Can a chimpanzee create a sentence?"
0:46:52 > 0:46:55I don't think I had any definitive conclusions to that.
0:46:56 > 0:46:57We had to wait and see.
0:47:01 > 0:47:03(Bill) It's kind of like you're almost there
0:47:03 > 0:47:06and you feel like there's going to be a conclusion,
0:47:06 > 0:47:09and it's like, "OK,"
0:47:09 > 0:47:11"it's over."
0:47:14 > 0:47:19(Herb) I thought that the surroundings in which he was born
0:47:19 > 0:47:23would provide the most psychological support for Nim.
0:47:25 > 0:47:28I felt the basic needs would be taken care of.
0:47:29 > 0:47:31PHONE RINGS
0:47:31 > 0:47:36So, once I got Bill Lemmon to agree to take him back,
0:47:36 > 0:47:38that was it.
0:47:50 > 0:47:51(Joyce) I hope he'll be OK.
0:47:52 > 0:47:54That's why I want to go with him.
0:47:54 > 0:47:57I hope that I'll be able to introduce him to his new life
0:47:58 > 0:48:01but still have an old part of his life with him, namely me.
0:48:01 > 0:48:04And he can get used to it and I can fade out and he'll be fine.
0:48:05 > 0:48:09It won't just be an abrupt break between old and new.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32(Bill) And we get Nim up early one morning,
0:48:34 > 0:48:35he gets a shot and he's out.
0:48:43 > 0:48:47(Herb) I chartered a plane and hired a pilot.
0:48:57 > 0:48:59Nim was given tranquillisers
0:48:59 > 0:49:02to reduce the possibility of his getting out of hand.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10If he was tranquillised, he'd be easier to control
0:49:10 > 0:49:13and not do any damage to the plane, which could be quite dangerous.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17(Joyce) So that's how we get him to Oklahoma.
0:49:19 > 0:49:22It was just a nasty thing to do.
0:49:23 > 0:49:25Very deceitful, I think.
0:49:29 > 0:49:32(Herb) The question is, what was going to happen in Oklahoma?
0:49:33 > 0:49:37And I didn't have any sense of that, so, that was my concern.
0:50:06 > 0:50:10(JOYCE LAUGHING) "Holy shit" was my first thought.
0:50:12 > 0:50:16And I think his reaction was "holy shit" too.
0:50:17 > 0:50:19Like he knew we were... He knew it was bad.
0:50:22 > 0:50:25He'd never seen a chimp before,
0:50:25 > 0:50:27and he was holding on tight.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32SCREECHING
0:50:32 > 0:50:34You look around, you see cages
0:50:34 > 0:50:37and you hear the sounds of a lot of chimpanzees.
0:50:38 > 0:50:41Would I have envisioned this, when I started on this project,
0:50:41 > 0:50:43that he ever would end up there? No.
0:50:48 > 0:50:50It turned out to be
0:50:50 > 0:50:53a surprisingly more primitive facility than I remembered.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58(Bob) Because our cages were cages.
0:50:58 > 0:51:00They weren't just a room with a locked door,
0:51:00 > 0:51:01they were cages.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03I mean, it looked like a prison.
0:51:03 > 0:51:08A really stark, ugly, dark, dank prison.
0:51:11 > 0:51:13(Alyce) They had a chain around their neck with a lock.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19Should you get into a bad fight,
0:51:19 > 0:51:21you could grab the chain and keep them off of you.
0:51:21 > 0:51:23It was like prison behaviour.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26We had to put up an electric fence around the island
0:51:26 > 0:51:28because we had had several murders
0:51:28 > 0:51:30and two suicides.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33They'd just push them out into the water,
0:51:33 > 0:51:34and chimps can't swim.
0:51:34 > 0:51:37(Joyce) Dr Lemmon ran the place.
0:51:37 > 0:51:40I had an immediate horrible reaction.
0:51:40 > 0:51:42He walked around with a cattle prod.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48I remember trying to push Nim away,
0:51:48 > 0:51:50because I knew what he was gonna do.
0:51:51 > 0:51:54And Nim is screaming and holding on to me very tightly,
0:51:55 > 0:51:58and the only reason he let go
0:51:58 > 0:52:01was because he got zapped with the electric prod.
0:52:07 > 0:52:09Come here a minute. Mac, come here. Mac, come here.
0:52:10 > 0:52:11Come here, come here.
0:52:12 > 0:52:15(Bill) The reasoning behind the whole Mac-Nim interaction
0:52:15 > 0:52:18was that Mac was not dangerous.
0:52:21 > 0:52:24(Alyce) He was small, so he was
0:52:24 > 0:52:27not an aggressive, dominant chimp,
0:52:27 > 0:52:30so he was the perfect one for Nim to start with.
0:53:09 > 0:53:12(Bill) Hey, Mac, uh-uh! Buh!
0:53:21 > 0:53:23(Interviewer) How did you expect Nim to react
0:53:23 > 0:53:25to his first meeting with another chimp?
0:53:26 > 0:53:30(Herb) I think what happened was that Nim was very apprehensive about Mac
0:53:30 > 0:53:31and he took his time
0:53:32 > 0:53:35and then when he was ready, he and Mac got it off.
0:53:37 > 0:53:39I feel very good about this,
0:53:39 > 0:53:42because I can leave now knowing that Nim has a friend
0:53:42 > 0:53:46and he's going to worry less about his human companions
0:53:46 > 0:53:49and have at least one other chimp to turn to.
0:53:57 > 0:53:59(Bill) It was time to leave,
0:53:59 > 0:54:02and that's when I took Nim and put him in the cage.
0:54:06 > 0:54:09Sure, I didn't want Joyce doing it,
0:54:09 > 0:54:10so I just said, "Well, I better go do it."
0:54:10 > 0:54:12I didn't want Terrace doing it.
0:54:13 > 0:54:16So, I just decided I was gonna do it.
0:54:18 > 0:54:19CHIMPANZEE GRUNTING
0:54:19 > 0:54:21CAGE RATTLING
0:54:25 > 0:54:27You know, we coaxed him down there and then,
0:54:28 > 0:54:30because he trusted us...
0:54:30 > 0:54:32I just led him in there and took the lead
0:54:33 > 0:54:35and tied it around the far end of the cage
0:54:35 > 0:54:38and said goodbye and walked out and shut the door.
0:54:42 > 0:54:44CHIMPANZEES HOOTING
0:54:47 > 0:54:50CAGES RATTLING
0:54:51 > 0:54:54He was sort of hooting and trying to come after me,
0:54:55 > 0:54:57cos he didn't really know where he was.
0:54:57 > 0:55:00But I just walked away.
0:55:02 > 0:55:04And then when he wasn't looking, he ran out,
0:55:04 > 0:55:06out the door.
0:55:22 > 0:55:23I did feel badly.
0:55:26 > 0:55:30I felt in a certain basic sense that was not the right thing to do
0:55:30 > 0:55:34to somebody, you know, who had been part of my life for so many years,
0:55:34 > 0:55:36and that I was definitely doing
0:55:36 > 0:55:40something that he somehow would feel was unjust or wrong.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50He had a little doll or something that I think I left.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01(Joyce) I strongly believe that we made a commitment to him
0:56:01 > 0:56:02and we failed.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08We did a huge disservice to that soul,
0:56:09 > 0:56:11and shame on us.
0:56:14 > 0:56:16CHIMPANZEES HOOTING
0:56:20 > 0:56:22(Bob) Assumed, I guess wrongly,
0:56:23 > 0:56:25that Nim was going to come back and he was going to be celebrated
0:56:26 > 0:56:28in the sense that he was going to be the great signing chimp.
0:56:30 > 0:56:31No, exactly the opposite.
0:56:31 > 0:56:33Exactly the opposite.
0:56:35 > 0:56:37Nim, in the cage,
0:56:37 > 0:56:41no special treatment, no yogurt, no granola,
0:56:41 > 0:56:42no... None of that.
0:56:43 > 0:56:45It was pretty traumatic for the chimp.
0:56:51 > 0:56:52They curl up
0:56:53 > 0:56:54and lay down.
0:56:55 > 0:56:58They lose interest in food. They just...
0:57:01 > 0:57:03It was a bad start with Nim and I.
0:57:03 > 0:57:05The chimp is very upset.
0:57:05 > 0:57:09And he just looks at me and he jumps and lunges at me
0:57:09 > 0:57:12and bites through an artery right in here.
0:57:13 > 0:57:15I did use a small shock stick.
0:57:15 > 0:57:17CHIMPANZEE SCREECHING
0:57:18 > 0:57:19He had to grow up
0:57:19 > 0:57:23and not be a single, spoiled child any more.
0:57:25 > 0:57:27So, you got to socialise,
0:57:27 > 0:57:29work on his "chimpanzee"
0:57:30 > 0:57:31and manners.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41Everybody needs a job.
0:57:42 > 0:57:44Meaning and purpose.
0:57:48 > 0:57:51I had them out, they would help me in the big kitchen
0:57:51 > 0:57:55where we prepped our food and did stuff, they'd sweep...
0:57:55 > 0:57:58Nim was a compulsive hand washer, he'd do dishes.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Vanessa liked to dust,
0:58:02 > 0:58:07little Mac liked to clean cages and wear my boots.
0:58:11 > 0:58:13This was a special group of chimps.
0:58:13 > 0:58:15They weren't ordinary chimps.
0:58:15 > 0:58:18You know, they had the capacity for higher consciousness.
0:58:31 > 0:58:33SCREECHING
0:58:40 > 0:58:42Terrace came back a year later.
0:58:44 > 0:58:47(Bob) Herb arrived with
0:58:47 > 0:58:50still photographers and cameras and that sort of thing.
0:58:51 > 0:58:53It was a shoot and it was arranged as such.
0:58:56 > 0:58:58(Herb) There was no question
0:58:58 > 0:59:00that he was very happy that he could see me again.
0:59:01 > 0:59:04There was no anger that, "Why did you leave me here?"
0:59:04 > 0:59:08It was just, "Hey, that's great. I want to see him again."
0:59:10 > 0:59:13(Bob) You could see that he was like, "Holy shit, I'm going back to New York!"
0:59:13 > 0:59:14It was like that.
0:59:15 > 0:59:16Like he was going to be rescued.
0:59:19 > 0:59:21It was kind of sad.
0:59:24 > 0:59:27(Herb) I played with him, we got into games of signing.
0:59:28 > 0:59:30I remember I got him to sign "hug".
0:59:30 > 0:59:31I got him to sign "Herb".
0:59:32 > 0:59:34In fact, I could get almost any sign out of him.
0:59:34 > 0:59:36I didn't have to go through a drill.
0:59:37 > 0:59:40So, it was a very entertaining, comfortable afternoon.
0:59:41 > 0:59:43No bad behaviour of any kind.
0:59:44 > 0:59:46(Alyce) At the end of the day, looks at his watch,
0:59:46 > 0:59:48gives me Nim back,
0:59:48 > 0:59:49and flies off.
0:59:51 > 0:59:53And is gone.
0:59:53 > 0:59:56Next morning he barely ate.
0:59:56 > 0:59:59He just started to crater.
1:00:02 > 1:00:04(Bob) Herb never came back.
1:00:07 > 1:00:09I thought, "I'm going to become Nim's friend,
1:00:09 > 1:00:12"and I'm going to hang with Nim and we'll see what happens. "
1:00:13 > 1:00:16I mean, there wasn't much I could do for him in terms of the cage,
1:00:16 > 1:00:18but get him out.
1:00:19 > 1:00:22Oh, you saw that, huh?
1:00:23 > 1:00:25See you later, Nim!
1:00:30 > 1:00:31We just liked each other right off,
1:00:31 > 1:00:33and sometimes it's like that.
1:00:49 > 1:00:50Chimps aren't humans.
1:00:52 > 1:00:54You have to kind of understand chimps
1:00:54 > 1:00:57to be able to understand how to work with them and be with them.
1:01:03 > 1:01:05I took him out on walks. I didn't bring food.
1:01:05 > 1:01:08I didn't do the kind of things
1:01:08 > 1:01:10that would interrupt the relationship
1:01:11 > 1:01:13or the building of the relationship.
1:01:17 > 1:01:20He grows on you quick.
1:01:20 > 1:01:22He was so charming.
1:01:22 > 1:01:27It didn't occur to me that animals had that kind of personality like ours.
1:01:29 > 1:01:31(Alyce) And you had to be true of heart.
1:01:32 > 1:01:34You had to be true of heart.
1:01:34 > 1:01:38If you had dark places in you, they'd know it and they wouldn't like you.
1:01:56 > 1:01:58Good morning. With us this morning is Dr Herbert Terrace,
1:01:58 > 1:02:02a professor of psychology at Columbia University.
1:02:02 > 1:02:04For several years, Dr Terrace was in charge of an experiment
1:02:05 > 1:02:06where he and several other human beings
1:02:07 > 1:02:09tried to teach a chimpanzee named Nim
1:02:09 > 1:02:11the sign language of the deaf.
1:02:11 > 1:02:14But now in a book just published, which is called Nim,
1:02:14 > 1:02:18you're saying, Dr Terrace, that these experiments don't prove
1:02:18 > 1:02:20as much as you had originally thought they did?
1:02:21 > 1:02:23(Herb) I changed my mind about the data.
1:02:29 > 1:02:33I suddenly saw what the key to this was.
1:02:34 > 1:02:36Nim was a brilliant beggar.
1:02:37 > 1:02:40He learned how to beg
1:02:40 > 1:02:43and he could work his teachers
1:02:43 > 1:02:45and always get what he wanted
1:02:45 > 1:02:47by moving his hands in different ways.
1:02:47 > 1:02:51And most of the time he moved his hands in the ways that the teachers suggested.
1:02:52 > 1:02:54And the motive for signing
1:02:55 > 1:02:57was not to say,
1:02:57 > 1:03:00"What a nice cat you have over there," but, "I want it."
1:03:01 > 1:03:03(interviewer) When the experiments were over,
1:03:03 > 1:03:06you returned Nim to the primate colony where he was born.
1:03:06 > 1:03:09A year after that you went back for a visit, and we came along with a camera.
1:03:11 > 1:03:13You and he are talking in sign language here.
1:03:14 > 1:03:16Here we have it in slow motion. What's Nim saying?
1:03:17 > 1:03:20(Herb) He's saying, "Give Nim banana."
1:03:21 > 1:03:24Why is it that you're saying that he can't speak like a human being?
1:03:25 > 1:03:28Well, a string of signs is not necessarily a sentence.
1:03:30 > 1:03:33You can learn a list of words by rote,
1:03:33 > 1:03:36and that says nothing about your ability to use a grammar.
1:03:36 > 1:03:39Aren't you very disappointed that you spent all this time and all this money?
1:03:40 > 1:03:42Well, it would have been very electrifying news,
1:03:42 > 1:03:44almost like communicating with a creature from outer space,
1:03:44 > 1:03:48if I could show that another organism
1:03:48 > 1:03:50could use language the way humans have.
1:03:50 > 1:03:51- But it didn't work. - It didn't work.
1:03:52 > 1:03:54Thank you very much, Dr Terrace.
1:03:54 > 1:03:56(WOMAN) I hope somebody can still talk to Nim, in any event.
1:04:12 > 1:04:14(Bob) I didn't care about the language argument after a while,
1:04:14 > 1:04:16it didn't matter to me.
1:04:18 > 1:04:20He might not have had sentences or grammar,
1:04:20 > 1:04:23but there's no question that there was communication going on,
1:04:23 > 1:04:25and I saw it clearly.
1:04:32 > 1:04:35He talked about the trees, the berries that he found.
1:04:40 > 1:04:42He liked to play.
1:04:42 > 1:04:44Favourite sign, "play".
1:04:50 > 1:04:52BOB LAUGHS
1:04:54 > 1:04:56Holy shit, he doesn't know which one to grab.
1:04:59 > 1:05:02(Bob) He knew what pot was, or hash, or whatever.
1:05:05 > 1:05:07(CHUCKLES) And he wanted to smoke a joint.
1:05:11 > 1:05:12Stone.
1:05:14 > 1:05:15Smoke.
1:05:15 > 1:05:17Now.
1:05:17 > 1:05:20When we went out on walks with him, Nim was one of us,
1:05:20 > 1:05:22and if we smoked a joint, he smoked it with us.
1:05:22 > 1:05:24In the circle, we handed it to him.
1:05:27 > 1:05:29Chimps are like us, they're hedonistic,
1:05:29 > 1:05:31they like to do pleasurable things, they like to...
1:05:32 > 1:05:35You know, they like to have fun, and hell, who doesn't?
1:05:41 > 1:05:43(Alyce) And there was something in marijuana...
1:05:46 > 1:05:47They weren't aggressive.
1:05:48 > 1:05:50You talk less, you do different things,
1:05:51 > 1:05:53you enjoy each other.
1:05:55 > 1:06:01(Bob) Lily and Nim lived together in the pig barn.
1:06:03 > 1:06:05(Alyce) Both of them didn't have many chimp friends,
1:06:07 > 1:06:10and then they became friends.
1:06:15 > 1:06:17They were seen copulating,
1:06:18 > 1:06:21and we think Nim might have been the father of Lily's baby.
1:06:35 > 1:06:37Had the best time in my life, I still say that.
1:06:37 > 1:06:39I've never had such a good time.
1:06:39 > 1:06:42Except maybe at a Grateful Dead show. Pretty close.
1:06:42 > 1:06:44I don't even know which one I'd...
1:06:44 > 1:06:47Actually, being with Nim... I'd rather be with Nim than Jerry,
1:06:48 > 1:06:50and, for me, that's saying something.
1:06:54 > 1:06:57(MAN) That's real. (Bob) Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a banana?
1:06:58 > 1:07:00Wanna eat the shoe?
1:07:02 > 1:07:04That's a shoe, this is a berry.
1:07:16 > 1:07:19(Bob) And that's when Mahoney started showing up.
1:07:21 > 1:07:23He was standing around,
1:07:23 > 1:07:26looking at chimps and writing on his pad and whatever.
1:07:27 > 1:07:29When someone...
1:07:29 > 1:07:30When I found out who he was,
1:07:30 > 1:07:34and I'm sure it didn't take long for me to figure it out, I was...
1:07:34 > 1:07:37Obviously he was checking out the chimps for the lab.
1:07:37 > 1:07:41LEMSIP is best known by its acronym, L-E-M-S-I-P,
1:07:41 > 1:07:46which is Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates.
1:07:46 > 1:07:50He represented the devil to me.
1:07:50 > 1:07:54Most of the work that we did with the chimpanzees, for example,
1:07:54 > 1:07:55was
1:07:57 > 1:07:58testing various
1:08:00 > 1:08:01candidate vaccines
1:08:02 > 1:08:07for, like, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, AIDS.
1:08:07 > 1:08:09I think it's very difficult
1:08:09 > 1:08:13to fund the kinds of research
1:08:14 > 1:08:16that I happen to be very much interested in.
1:08:16 > 1:08:19It's been difficult to fund social research in general.
1:08:21 > 1:08:25(James) We heard about Dr Lemmon's problems, which were financial.
1:08:27 > 1:08:29It was finally arranged that, yes,
1:08:29 > 1:08:32we would take a very large part of their colony.
1:08:35 > 1:08:38I thought Lemmon was trying to scare the university.
1:08:38 > 1:08:41I thought they would go,
1:08:41 > 1:08:43"Oh, gosh, you can't sell them to a medical lab."
1:08:43 > 1:08:44"We've got to do something."
1:08:44 > 1:08:46I thought the community would rise itself up.
1:08:46 > 1:08:50Bob and I tried so hard with public appeal
1:08:50 > 1:08:54for something for the chimps, and there was no response.
1:08:55 > 1:08:57And then, shortly after that,
1:08:57 > 1:08:59the chimps were indeed sold.
1:09:07 > 1:09:09(Interviewer) Of the chimps that are being sent off to the lab today,
1:09:09 > 1:09:12how many of them were subjects of the signing research?
1:09:12 > 1:09:14Only one
1:09:15 > 1:09:19was restricted to signing research. This is Nim.
1:09:23 > 1:09:25LORRY ENGINE RUNNING
1:09:27 > 1:09:29(James) As a chimp, you've got no way of knowing what's happening to you.
1:09:29 > 1:09:33You're just suddenly cut off from seeing everything outside.
1:09:35 > 1:09:39Suddenly, after a day and a half of constant driving,
1:09:39 > 1:09:42you get out the other end and you're in another sort of room.
1:09:50 > 1:09:52(CHIMPANZEES HOOTING)
1:10:00 > 1:10:03I wouldn't say they were jumping with joy
1:10:05 > 1:10:07to find themselves in a new place.
1:10:16 > 1:10:20Come on. Come here. Come on. One more time. One more time!
1:10:21 > 1:10:23CHIMPANZEE SCREAMING
1:10:25 > 1:10:27It's over. It's all right, it's over.
1:10:30 > 1:10:33I took on the role of being the one who chose
1:10:33 > 1:10:36which animals would go into which types of study.
1:10:38 > 1:10:40And I hated it.
1:10:40 > 1:10:42(James) Spike, Spike, come over here, Spike.
1:10:43 > 1:10:45Spike, come on over here. Come on.
1:10:51 > 1:10:52You want to go away with Spike?
1:10:53 > 1:10:59These animals will be used on hepatitis vaccine safety tests.
1:10:59 > 1:11:02It is a federal law that before
1:11:02 > 1:11:06a new batch of vaccine can be released on the American market,
1:11:06 > 1:11:09it must be tested in four chimpanzees.
1:11:10 > 1:11:12There's no way, in all honesty...
1:11:12 > 1:11:16There's no way you can carry out research on animals
1:11:16 > 1:11:18and for it to be humane.
1:11:18 > 1:11:20It can't be humane,
1:11:20 > 1:11:23because you already put them in a cage.
1:11:23 > 1:11:27That was already the first step, and from there on, it's downhill.
1:11:27 > 1:11:30CHIMPANZEES SCREECHING
1:11:34 > 1:11:37We realised that certain of the Oklahoma chimps
1:11:37 > 1:11:40could use sign language and were trying
1:11:40 > 1:11:41to sign with us.
1:11:41 > 1:11:45What we did was, we wrote down on sheets of paper,
1:11:45 > 1:11:47which we posted all over the place,
1:11:47 > 1:11:50on doors and walls and everywhere we could find,
1:11:50 > 1:11:53certain signs,
1:11:53 > 1:11:56and it was hoped that, as time went by,
1:11:56 > 1:12:00everyone would pick up at least a certain amount of sign language.
1:12:06 > 1:12:08I didn't see
1:12:09 > 1:12:13Nim as special, above anyone else in the group,
1:12:13 > 1:12:17because they were all going through the same thing.
1:12:47 > 1:12:51(Bob) I made a big, big stink about it in every way I could.
1:12:51 > 1:12:56I called the press. We bitched as much as we could.
1:13:06 > 1:13:08(Jim) The student Bob Ingersoll,
1:13:08 > 1:13:11he used to hound me every chance he got,
1:13:11 > 1:13:13and I would start to get really annoyed.
1:13:14 > 1:13:16And then it dawned on me
1:13:16 > 1:13:19that he was the only one who cared.
1:13:19 > 1:13:22Nobody, nobody,
1:13:22 > 1:13:24except the press, helped us.
1:13:24 > 1:13:26(Interviewer) Is there anything that you would consider doing
1:13:26 > 1:13:28to prevent what is going to happen to him?
1:13:28 > 1:13:32Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do
1:13:32 > 1:13:34because legally Nim is not mine.
1:13:34 > 1:13:38Nim was loaned to me for the duration of my project.
1:13:39 > 1:13:40That project ran out of funds...
1:13:40 > 1:13:42PHONE RINGING
1:13:46 > 1:13:48(Henry) Somebody at the Boston Globe
1:13:49 > 1:13:52told me to read a front-page story on that day
1:13:52 > 1:13:54and he said, "I think you'd be interested,
1:13:54 > 1:13:56"and I know you take unusual cases."
1:13:59 > 1:14:01As a human being, I thought it was
1:14:01 > 1:14:04a kind of esoteric, unique form of animal cruelty,
1:14:04 > 1:14:06all the worse for that.
1:14:06 > 1:14:09And as a lawyer I thought it was just plain illegal.
1:14:09 > 1:14:11If the facts are, as I'm being told,
1:14:11 > 1:14:15that this young chimp was brought up from infancy
1:14:15 > 1:14:17in a human family, you can't stick him
1:14:17 > 1:14:20into a little cage in some horrible medical lab
1:14:20 > 1:14:22and use him for medical experiments.
1:14:22 > 1:14:24It's per se animal cruelty.
1:14:25 > 1:14:27Early on, I decided this:
1:14:28 > 1:14:33If this animal has been deliberately brought up from infanthood
1:14:34 > 1:14:36to think of himself as human,
1:14:36 > 1:14:40then, if I'm going to represent him, I have to treat him like a human client.
1:14:41 > 1:14:43Give him his day in court.
1:14:45 > 1:14:49(Bob) Henry and I, Mr Herrmann, were in communication pretty much every day.
1:14:51 > 1:14:53He used a really cool strategy, actually.
1:14:53 > 1:14:56He said, "Hey, this chimp can speak for himself."
1:14:56 > 1:14:58"Let's bring him into court and let him talk."
1:14:58 > 1:15:00What I had ready as a trial exhibit
1:15:01 > 1:15:02was a steel cage
1:15:03 > 1:15:06and a couple of strong guys with a pole ready to carry it into court.
1:15:07 > 1:15:11And I was going to get Nim to go into a frenzy and signal "out, out, out".
1:15:11 > 1:15:13And I believe the judge said
1:15:13 > 1:15:16something to the effect that, "I'm not letting a fucking chimpanzee"
1:15:16 > 1:15:19"come in here and make a mockery of my courtroom,"
1:15:19 > 1:15:21or something to that effect.
1:15:21 > 1:15:23And that's when I said I'm going to bring, in effect,
1:15:23 > 1:15:25a habeas corpus petition on behalf of the chimp.
1:15:25 > 1:15:27Bring him to court.
1:15:31 > 1:15:35Our opponents were pigheaded, but they weren't stupid.
1:15:35 > 1:15:37They realised that win, lose or draw,
1:15:37 > 1:15:39once I got into court, they'd be losing,
1:15:39 > 1:15:42because even if the judge refused to hear him,
1:15:42 > 1:15:44the media attention would have been devastating.
1:15:46 > 1:15:48And the dean of the medical faculty said,
1:15:48 > 1:15:51"That's it, get that chimp out of here."
1:15:57 > 1:16:00Before anything could happen,
1:16:00 > 1:16:02swooping down,
1:16:02 > 1:16:05like in some Wagnerian drama,
1:16:05 > 1:16:07comes Cleveland Amory.
1:16:11 > 1:16:13I want this to be a place
1:16:13 > 1:16:15where those animals
1:16:15 > 1:16:16that have been abused,
1:16:16 > 1:16:18that have been misused,
1:16:18 > 1:16:20will finally and forever
1:16:20 > 1:16:25have a place that they never will have to fear again.
1:16:27 > 1:16:30(Henry) Mr Amory had, up until then,
1:16:30 > 1:16:32perhaps a well-deserved reputation
1:16:32 > 1:16:35for doing important work for animal rights.
1:16:35 > 1:16:37And he just went and buys the chimp,
1:16:38 > 1:16:41takes him to his Black Horse Ranch or whatever it was called,
1:16:41 > 1:16:44and says, "I am saving Nim."
1:16:44 > 1:16:46(Reporter) Cleveland Amory to the rescue again.
1:16:46 > 1:16:49Nim will live here for the rest of his natural life.
1:16:52 > 1:16:56(Marion) "Here my story ends, my troubles are over, and I am at home."
1:16:57 > 1:17:00And that's what it says as you drive into Black Beauty Ranch.
1:17:02 > 1:17:03He was the only animal we ever bought.
1:17:03 > 1:17:06And we didn't know a thing about chimpanzees,
1:17:06 > 1:17:08but we just thought it was better...
1:17:08 > 1:17:10What we could do was better than where he was.
1:17:13 > 1:17:16It was never meant to be a home for caged animals.
1:17:18 > 1:17:21It is really a home for abused and abandoned equine animals.
1:17:21 > 1:17:23That's animals just with hooves.
1:17:28 > 1:17:32(Henry) We were aghast that he would just pick up this chimp,
1:17:32 > 1:17:35transport him to a horse ranch somewhere in the middle of nowhere,
1:17:36 > 1:17:39and there was nobody there who knew how to take care of a chimp.
1:17:42 > 1:17:46(Marion) We brought him to Black Beauty and built a house for him.
1:17:47 > 1:17:50It was a big, kind of a square place
1:17:50 > 1:17:53and it had a porch outside so that he could go outside,
1:17:53 > 1:17:55and he had all sorts of toys to play with, but it was solitary.
1:18:08 > 1:18:09Chimps are social animals.
1:18:09 > 1:18:12And you can't just put one chimp in a box
1:18:13 > 1:18:14and expect everything to be cool.
1:18:22 > 1:18:26Some of the time he was sitting like this, in the corner.
1:18:26 > 1:18:28And you just thought, "What is he thinking,"
1:18:28 > 1:18:29"what is he missing, what can we do?"
1:18:29 > 1:18:33Will you please be sure to stop off here in the nation's capital?
1:18:33 > 1:18:36We had a TV down and then he broke that,
1:18:36 > 1:18:38and then we put one up in the ceiling,
1:18:38 > 1:18:40and he found a way to get up there.
1:18:42 > 1:18:43(CHUCKLING) Well, OK, you don't get a television
1:18:43 > 1:18:45if that's gonna be your attitude.
1:18:48 > 1:18:51(Bob) I wrote letters to Cleveland bitching at him about how
1:18:52 > 1:18:55leaving Nim there alone was virtually torture.
1:19:05 > 1:19:07Not only did they not care what I thought,
1:19:07 > 1:19:10they wanted me as far away from them as possible.
1:19:11 > 1:19:13They wanted to make that pretty clear,
1:19:13 > 1:19:15and they did make that pretty clear.
1:19:15 > 1:19:17"If you come here, you'll be arrested."
1:19:34 > 1:19:36I felt it, you know, and I just wanted to...
1:19:38 > 1:19:40I don't know, I...
1:19:54 > 1:19:56(Marion) He got out a number of times.
1:19:58 > 1:20:00What he wanted to do was go in the ranch house,
1:20:01 > 1:20:05be in the ranch house, be with people, sleep in a bed.
1:20:05 > 1:20:07Well, we had a bed for him in his house.
1:20:07 > 1:20:09We never slept in the bed in his house.
1:20:11 > 1:20:15One time when he came in the house, there was a little white poodle
1:20:15 > 1:20:17that just barked and barked and barked
1:20:17 > 1:20:19at this chimpanzee coming through the door.
1:20:19 > 1:20:22He just picked it up and swung him against the wall.
1:20:22 > 1:20:25He meant to shut the dog up, but, of course, he killed the dog.
1:20:26 > 1:20:27There was another time when he went in the house
1:20:27 > 1:20:29and he picked up a chair and threw it through the window.
1:20:36 > 1:20:39This is a very miserable chimpanzee, you know?
1:20:41 > 1:20:42He'd had such a chequered life,
1:20:42 > 1:20:45he'd gone from here to here to here to here to here.
1:20:46 > 1:20:49They should not be taken away from their mothers in the first place.
1:20:50 > 1:20:52KNOCKING
1:21:01 > 1:21:02(Stephanie) I knew that Nim was there.
1:21:02 > 1:21:05I didn't know anything about the quality of his life there.
1:21:05 > 1:21:08You heard good things and bad things and so on.
1:21:08 > 1:21:10And I thought, why not go?
1:21:13 > 1:21:15(Jenny) So we all flew out to Texas,
1:21:15 > 1:21:18we go to the ranch, we meet the people taking care of him.
1:21:19 > 1:21:21He was alone. He was the only chimp there.
1:21:28 > 1:21:31I happened to be looking at him when Stephanie got out of the car,
1:21:31 > 1:21:34and he saw her and he recognised her right away,
1:21:35 > 1:21:37and the look on his face was just,
1:21:37 > 1:21:38"Oh, now you come."
1:21:39 > 1:21:42"Now you come. Now I've been through all this, and now you come. "
1:21:46 > 1:21:48(Jenny) He definitely recognised us.
1:21:49 > 1:21:52Whether he was happy to see us, I don't know.
1:21:56 > 1:21:58(Stephanie) He wasn't particularly attractive to me
1:21:58 > 1:22:00now that he was an adult chimpanzee.
1:22:00 > 1:22:01I didn't have a,
1:22:01 > 1:22:04"Oh, isn't he beautiful," or anything like that.
1:22:04 > 1:22:05He was... I didn't know him.
1:22:08 > 1:22:09My mother decides
1:22:09 > 1:22:13that she wants to go into the enclosure with Nim.
1:22:14 > 1:22:15Which didn't...
1:22:15 > 1:22:18Which happened sort of, "I'm going to go in with Nim."
1:22:19 > 1:22:21We said to her,
1:22:21 > 1:22:23"He doesn't look like he's going to welcome you,"
1:22:23 > 1:22:24"so maybe you shouldn't go into his facility."
1:22:26 > 1:22:28I was curious. "Is he gonna sign?"
1:22:28 > 1:22:30"What's gonna happen? What's it gonna be like?"
1:22:30 > 1:22:33Stephanie, please don't go in there, he's not in a good mood.
1:22:34 > 1:22:36You know, you can tell he's not in a good mood.
1:22:36 > 1:22:38GRUNTING
1:22:39 > 1:22:41I opened the gate and walked in.
1:22:42 > 1:22:44Nim went up to the, like,
1:22:44 > 1:22:46first-and-a-half storey, something like that,
1:22:46 > 1:22:48pretty high up.
1:22:48 > 1:22:51And I realised how much danger I was in.
1:22:54 > 1:22:56HOOTING
1:22:56 > 1:23:00He came down, and then it was a blur.
1:23:01 > 1:23:03He grabbed her by the ankle
1:23:03 > 1:23:05and he starts dragging her, running back and forth,
1:23:06 > 1:23:08literally like a rag doll, just pulling her back and forth.
1:23:08 > 1:23:09I think he's going to kill her.
1:23:10 > 1:23:11He was going to swing her against the wall
1:23:11 > 1:23:12and then swing her against the wall again.
1:23:12 > 1:23:14There was nothing loving about it, he was furious.
1:23:14 > 1:23:16HOOTING
1:23:18 > 1:23:20I remember there being discussions about
1:23:20 > 1:23:22getting the gun or not getting the gun, yeah.
1:23:23 > 1:23:25So they got a gun.
1:23:30 > 1:23:33No, he's not going to kill her, he's just really pissed off.
1:23:34 > 1:23:35GRUNTING
1:23:36 > 1:23:38(Stephanie) Things dissipate and he sort of wandered off
1:23:38 > 1:23:40and I was able to get out a door.
1:23:40 > 1:23:43I have no idea how long the whole thing lasted.
1:23:44 > 1:23:48The fact that he didn't kill her meant a lot,
1:23:48 > 1:23:49cos he could have.
1:23:51 > 1:23:54And he would have been dead, cos they would have shot him.
1:23:57 > 1:24:00(Stephanie) I had abandoned him,
1:24:00 > 1:24:03and he had managed to grow up, and I had walked back in
1:24:04 > 1:24:08as if I had not abandoned him, and he said, "No."
1:24:08 > 1:24:09"This is my space."
1:24:10 > 1:24:13"I'm going to put you in your place, but I'm not going to hurt you."
1:24:22 > 1:24:25We had done so much damage,
1:24:25 > 1:24:29removing him from what his life should have been.
1:24:29 > 1:24:34We exploited his human-like nature without regard to his chimpanzee nature.
1:24:35 > 1:24:37We were co-opting him right from the beginning.
1:24:38 > 1:24:41It was wrong. It was wrong.
1:25:14 > 1:25:16(Bob) About a year after Nim was sold to the Fund,
1:25:16 > 1:25:19they purchased a female chimpanzee to be with him.
1:25:20 > 1:25:23Around ten years after that, I heard she was in failing health.
1:25:24 > 1:25:26I was worried that Nim was going to be on his own again.
1:25:27 > 1:25:30That same time I was told that a new guy had taken over the ranch,
1:25:30 > 1:25:32and his name was Chris Burn.
1:25:33 > 1:25:35So I approached Chris about visiting Nim.
1:25:41 > 1:25:46Once I met Chris I was really, really reassured
1:25:46 > 1:25:49that things were going to be much better for Nim.
1:25:49 > 1:25:51(Man) Look, Nim. Somebody's come to see you.
1:25:51 > 1:25:53Oh, he's got his hackles up.
1:25:55 > 1:25:58- Hey, it's OK. - (Bob) Hi, Nim. What's up, bud? Nim.
1:26:01 > 1:26:03Nim! What's up, bud?
1:26:05 > 1:26:07CLICKING TONGUE
1:26:07 > 1:26:09Yeah, I know, buddy. Who am I? Who am I?
1:26:10 > 1:26:11Hey, who are you?
1:26:15 > 1:26:16Play, play.
1:26:19 > 1:26:20Play where? Where?
1:26:28 > 1:26:29BOB PANTING PLAYFULLY
1:26:32 > 1:26:34You are having such a good time.
1:26:45 > 1:26:48I said to Chris, "I have a way to help you,
1:26:48 > 1:26:51"and I know I can help you to get other chimps,
1:26:52 > 1:26:54"so let's work together."
1:26:56 > 1:27:01Buddy, things are improving. Things are way improving.
1:27:01 > 1:27:05It's taken awhile, though. It's taken a long time. Hasn't been easy.
1:27:06 > 1:27:10(James) On August the 10th, 1995,
1:27:11 > 1:27:16the Dean of NYU Medical Center announced that LEMSIP would be closed,
1:27:17 > 1:27:21and I thought, "I'm going to try and save as many of the chimps as I can,"
1:27:22 > 1:27:26"but in a very quiet way, secretly."
1:27:27 > 1:27:30(Bob) Hey, Lulu. What's up, girl? How you doing?
1:27:30 > 1:27:34(James) That's where Bob came in through the secret network.
1:27:34 > 1:27:37(Bob) What's up, Nim? Who is this over here?
1:27:37 > 1:27:40Who is this over here, Nim? Who is it?
1:27:40 > 1:27:42This is going to be your new roommate!
1:27:47 > 1:27:48Isn't that nice?
1:28:01 > 1:28:05(Bob) What do you think, Midge? I told you it would be nice, didn't I?
1:28:05 > 1:28:09Jim Mahoney moved literally 50, 60 chimps.
1:28:11 > 1:28:15And we did indeed get two chimps from LEMSIP,
1:28:15 > 1:28:18through Mahoney, to Black Beauty Ranch.
1:28:18 > 1:28:22(James) Midge was a youngish adult male
1:28:23 > 1:28:27and Lulu was very gentle.
1:28:30 > 1:28:35Lulu immediately went to her defence and Nim came over.
1:28:35 > 1:28:38Very good, Lulu. She's so good.
1:28:39 > 1:28:40(Bob) Yeah, you're a friend, Lulu.
1:28:40 > 1:28:44(James) I think Midge and Lulu really helped him out enormously.
1:28:49 > 1:28:51What? Now you're making noises for it.
1:28:51 > 1:28:52What's the name of this?
1:28:52 > 1:28:55Nim's. Nim's what? Soda pop, I know.
1:28:55 > 1:28:58(Bob) Things were as good as could be expected,
1:28:58 > 1:29:02based on everything you know that had gone on previous.
1:29:02 > 1:29:05Oh, yeah, that's so good, Nim. Isn't it good?
1:29:05 > 1:29:08It wasn't exactly perfect.
1:29:08 > 1:29:10But it was pretty damn good.
1:29:24 > 1:29:28(James) Chimps are truly wonderful animals.
1:29:30 > 1:29:33They're very forgiving, the vast majority of them.
1:29:37 > 1:29:39They'll forgive you.