Genetically speaking, chimpanzees are the closest non-human relatives to actual humans, falling in the Hominidae family alongside us (humans), gorillas, and orangutans. (Thank you, Wikipedia.) But if we are so closely related, does that mean humans can raise a chimpanzee from birth as a human and it will behave as such? Or is this just a misguided attempt at what I will dub “Reverse Tarzan”? Project Nim is a documentary that explores just this and discovers: nope — still a chimp. But an interesting experiment, nonetheless.
The objective of Project Nim, which began back in the 1970s, was to determine if the classic sociological chestnut “nature vs. nurture” applied to animals being raised as a human, by humans, the same way feral children take on the behaviors of animals. Since chimpanzees are practically cousins to humans, scientists wondered if they were as “malleable” as these feral children. After all, chimpanzees and humans had common ancestors as recently as 6 million years ago. Plus, they have their own social habits, communication, even spirituality and empathy (they’ve been observed to mourn and feed other animals) that are comparable to human behavior.
It’s a cool experiment! Because who doesn’t love chimpanzees? But this proved to go beyond a culture clash, at least judging by the scars on the people appearing in the trailer (which is embedded below). As Nim, the subject of this experiment, grew up, he turned out to be, well, a chimp. And chimps are stronger than humans and tend towards unintended violence, not realizing their own strength. So, if you’ve been thinking about getting a chimp as a pet, know this now: It’s not going to be a pet. And it’s not going to be a reliably friendly companion 100% of the time. So maybe try to watch Project Nim instead.
