片中的黑猩猩尼姆于1973年出生于美国俄克拉荷马州的一个灵长类动物庇护中心，出生10天都就被从它母亲手中夺走用以进行一项手语实验研究。
Nim was born in 1973, in a primate research facility in Oklahoma, and was taken from his mother when he was only ten days old, to be used in a sign-language experiment.