This WORLD GORILLA DAY — how one gorilla debunked a long-held myth about her species and changed what we know about gorillas forever.
Gorillas were once thought to be mindless, aggressive beasts; inspiring the creation of monsters like King Kong. But all that changed with one gorilla — Koko — who showed her species capable of reason, language, grief and love. This WORLD GORILLA DAY, we are celebrating her contributions to our understanding of these remarkable RAINFOREST creatures.
Meet Koko
Koko was a western lowland gorilla born in captivity at the San Francisco Zoo. As a baby, Koko was rejected by her mother and faced malnourishment. Koko’s life was changed when she was introduced to Dr. Penny Patterson. She began teaching Koko sign language as a baby, to see if gorillas had the capacity to learn human language. From this introduction began a four-and-a-half decades long language experiment that completely changed our view of gorilla's and their ability to learn languages.
A life of learning
From birth until death, Koko learned and practiced sign language. American Sign Language (ASL) was chosen because chimpanzees had successfully learned how to sign in other language studies. Dr. Patterson started with simple words her first year, and focused on repetition. Koko continued to learn new signs her entire life, but her learning peaked during year 3 — she learned 200 new words. The amount that she learned as a young gorilla was comparable to a human toddler of a similar age. Since Dr. Patterson would speak the words as she would sign them, Koko also understood spoken English and could respond using ASL.
Koko was introduced to Michael the gorilla when she was six. Michael had been rescued after being orphaned in Cameroon. The pair learned sign language together and developed a close friendship. Their ability to practice together reinforced their language learning.
A lot of personality
Through Koko’s language acquisition and communication, researchers got to know Koko (and gorillas) on a deeper level. Using sign language, Koko would joke around and create imaginary scenarios with her toys. This taught us that imagination isn’t just reserved for only humans.
Unlocking empathy
Koko is most well-known for her infamous love of cats. After being given a toy cat, Koko was notably sad — she wanted a real one. Scientists gave in to her demands and were surprised at how dedicated Koko was to her new kitten, All Ball. She treated the cat like a baby — and was devastated by her death. This wasn't the only time Koko displayed grief, she had a similar reaction when she was told about the death of the actor, Robin Williams, whom she met in 2001.
At the age of 46, Koko passed away in her sleep. Her language journey taught us that gorillas are more like us than we may think — encouraging us to show compassion to fuel our fight for gorilla conservation.
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