Koko was born on July 4, 1971 at the San Francisco Zoo and is a female western lowland gorilla, scientifically called “Gorilla gorilla gorilla”, a subspecies of the western gorillas (“Gorilla gorilla”). Her name comes from Hanabiko, which in Japanese means fireworks child and refers to Koko’s birth day.
When she was about a year Koko started receiving lessons in a sign language based on the American sign language and according to researcher Francine “Penny” Patterson she understands over 1,000 of them and can also understand about 2,000 words in spoken English.
In 1978 the documentary “Koko: A Talking Gorilla” was filmed that illustrates the work of Penny Patterson with Koko. Over the years a number of documentaries for television have been produced about Koko’s story.
On April 12, 1998 Koko participated in a chat on America Online, obviously with Penny Patterson acting as an intermediary in order to translate the questions for her and type her answers.
Another gorilla named Michael, who lived for some years together with Koko, learned hundreds of signs but never reached a skill comparable to Koko’s. Penny Patterson hoped that the two gorillas might have a child but this and some other attempts to find a mate for Koko have so far failed.
Some videos of Koko communicating with signs were seen by Kanzi, a bonobo with extraordinary linguistic skills who learned the sign language watching Koko.
Koko loves cats. In 1984 she asked for the first time to have a cat and when she was given one she took care of it. When the cat escaped and was killed by a car Koko expressed her sadness with various signs. It’s one of the topics Penny Patterson writes about in her book “Koko’s Kitten” (available on Amazon USA
Over the years there have been various disputes about the real depth of Koko’s communication skills. Some claim that Koko actually completes sentences because in the end she’s rewarded so that she basically just responds to a stimulus. Penny Patterson however claims that Koko expresses herself when she receives no rewards as well.
Another point of dispute concerns the interpretation of Koko’s sign combinations, as according to some it can be arbitrary. Penny Patterson replies that Koko’s signs have a meaning even when expressing new concepts and gives examples such as the finger-bracelet combination she used to refer to a ring, of which she didn’t know the sign describing it.
Tests reveal that Koko’s IQ is between 75 and 90, close to that of an average human being.
Koko is the testimonial of the Gorilla Foundation, which aims to familiarize the general public communication between species to save gorillas from extinction with the motto “conservation through communication”. Let’s hope that this foundation may be successful in its intent!
