Resources & Archives In Memoriam Photo courtesy of: The Fund for Animals (Summer 2000) — We all join The Fund for Animals in mourning the death of Nim Chimpsky, a 26-year-old chimpanzee, who died at The Fund's Black Beauty Ranch of a heart attack on March 10, 2000. Nim was one of the quickest learners of sign language in chimp history, learning more than 300 signs. Nim was born at the Institute for Primate Studies in Oklahoma. When he was only three days old, he became a "research subject" in projects to determine whether chimpanzees could learn sign language. Over the years of the research, he had more than 60 different trainers beginning in 1973 with Herb Terrace in a project affiliated with the psychology department at Columbia University. Nim had acquired a vocabulary of about 12 words when Terrace began his training that employed the strict behaviorist approach of a "tough regimen of rewards and punishments." Nim's vocabulary fell rather than flourished under Terrace. Frustrated, Terrace then began to imitate the teaching approach used by Roger Fouts with Washoe. Unlike Fouts' historic work, however, Terrace's work led him to conclude that Nim and Washoe or any of the other chimps used in the language experiments did not understand the interactive nature of language. With funding waning, Terrace returned Nim to the Institute, where he languished for some years. By the early 80s, there were a steadily growing number of excess chimps in laboratories. As controversy grew and funding diminished, the chimps formerly used in language experiments were dispersed to medical labs and zoos around the country. Several of the signing chimps, including April, Booie and Bruno, were moved to the Laboratory for Experimental Medicine and Surgery in Primates (LEMSIP). In the face of mounting pressure from the animal rights community to release the chimps to sanctuary, the question of what to do with the chimps became an evermore-pressing problem. Nim, now age nine, was sent to a laboratory and scheduled for use in hepatitis experiments. Fortunately, Cleveland Amory and The Fund prevailed upon the university to spare Nim so he could live out his life peacefully at Black Beauty Ranch. Nim celebrated his 26th birthday last November. He is survived by three other rescued chimps currently living at Black Beauty Ranch - Midge, Kitty, and LuLu Belle - with whom he lived for the past several years. At the Ranch, thanks to The Fund and people of compassion everywhere, Nim was surrounded by respect and able to live in dignity. To learn more about the plight of the great apes used in sign language research, read Next of Kin, by Roger Fouts, PhD and Silent Partners, The Legacy of the Ape Language Experiments by Eugene Linden. Action Alert! Help Baboons in Kenya! Back to UPDATE 2000 Series, Vol. 1, No. 2 Summer mainpage.