Can a chimpanzee learn to speak by using sign language? Yes. But in what sense does it know what it is saying? Project Nim, a fascinating documentary, follows the life of a chimp named Nim Chimpsky as it s raised like a human baby and then shuttled from one set of parents and homes to another. The chimp emerges from this experience as a more admirable creature than many of its humans.
Nim was born in captivity in Oklahoma and taken from his mother after a few days by Herbert Terrace, a Columbia professor who recruited his student Stephanie LaFarge to be the chimp s foster mother. This was in the 1970s, which helps explain why Stephanie breast-fed Nim and allowed him to smoke pot and have the occasional beer. In his early years, Nim was a bright and affectionate child, quickly learning what would eventually grow into a vocabulary of 125 signs. He even made progress at potty training, although I doubt he ever quite saw the point.