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Koko
is a 35 year-old lowland gorilla who
learned to speak American Sign
Language
when she was just a baby.
Her teacher,
Dr.
Penny Patterson, began working
with
Koko as a Ph.D. project at
Stanford, thinking
it would only
be a 4-year study.
Thirty-some years
later, Penny and Koko
continue
to work together at the Gorilla
Foundation
in one of the longest
interspecies
communication
studies
ever conducted, the only
one with gorillas. Koko now has a vocabulary
of over 1000 signs,
and understands even more
spoken
English.
Koko has become famous not only for
her language
capabilities, but
also her heart-warming relationship
with kittens (captured in the book Koko's
Kitten).
As Penny
says, "she's just as much a person as
we are."
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Koko Signs "Love"
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Koko's greatest desire is to have a
baby. She
has indicated that she will teach her
children sign language, which will engender
the next generation
of interspecies communication.
Koko has
become the ambassador
for her
critically endangered
species.
People need to
care about a species to save it, and
Koko makes people
care! The pending completion
of the new Maui
Ape Preserve by the Gorilla Foundation,
and the expansion of our Africa
Projects, will help assure the
future for Koko, ape language studies,
free-lliving gorillas and other
great ape species.
You
can help!
Note that while Koko is well known for
her communication skills, she is not
unique. Koko's late male companion,
Michael,
was also fluent in sign language, a
prolific painter, and intelligent beyond
anyone's wildest expectations. And Koko's
current silverback companion, Ndume,
is equally personable, empathetic and
intelligent. Koko's species is remarkable
indeed. |
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Learn More
| Donate
Now |
A Message from Koko |
The
Significance of Project Koko |
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