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News
'Poachers to Protectors' Exhibit Opens at SF Main Library, Celebrates Gorilla Foundation's Koko's Kitten Book Project
San Francisco - The Gorilla Foundation and the San Francisco Public Library are co-sponsoring a multi-media exhibition, "Poachers to Protectors: Koko's Kitten Book Project," scheduled to open on Tuesday, September 5, at the Main Library's Jewett Gallery, located on the lower level.
The exhibition celebrates the role of a special children's book, Koko's Kitten by Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson, who 28 years ago began working with the now-famous Koko. Koko is a Western Lowland gorilla who can communicate using over 1,000 signs of a modified form of American Sign Language (ASL). Koko's Kitten has already introduced hundreds of thousands of people to the human-like emotional life of a gorilla. At the same time, the book draws attention to the plight of the Lowland gorillas in Cameroon in Western Africa.
Award-winning photographer Ronald Cohn, one of Koko's longtime caregivers, took the well-known series of photographs of Koko with her pet kitten and with her male gorilla companion.
Cohn's intimate and playful images of the gorillas contrast sharply to the powerful and often disturbing photographs by pre-eminent photographer Karl Ammann documenting the illegal slaughter of gorillas and chimpanzees for bushmeat, eaten as an expensive delicacy. Hunters, eager for extra cash, meet the growing demand for this food "fad" by killing off an ever-increasing number of the endangered species.
Poachers to Protectors Exhibit
Mainstream U.S. publications, including the New York Times Magazine and Natural History, have only recently begun to write about this crisis. The Gorilla Foundation hopes that those who view the images of the gorillas as gentle animals who care for others and grieve their loss, will begin to question the acceptability of hunting and eating gorillas and other apes. According to NY Times Magazine correspondent Donald McNeil, Jr., in his May 9, 1999, story, "The Great Ape Massacre," hunters looking for bushmeat are "wiping out chimps and gorillas . . . "
In an ongoing effort to curtail the hunting, thousands of copies of the French version of Koko's Kitten are being given away to teachers, missionaries and conservation workers in African countries. Joseph, a former bushmeat hunter, was so moved by the "humanity" of Koko that he requested a copy of the book to show to his hunting friends. Letters from Cameroonian children who have been deeply affected by reading Koko's Kitten are also included in the Library's new exhibit. Additionally, the exhibit features reproductions of original paintings by Koko and her gorilla companions. The "Poachers to Protectors" exhibit runs September 5 to October 20.
"The Gathering," a related traveling exhibit of seven life-size bronze chimpanzees by sculptor Bart Walter, also opens on September 5 in the SF Main Library's Skylight Gallery at 101 Larkin Street. Sponsored by the Friends of the Wallace Stegner Environmental Center of the SF Public Library in conjunction with the Jane Goodall Institute, the exhibit celebrates the Institute's 40th Anniversary and the recent release of Dr. Goodall's new book, Jane Goodall - 40 Years at Gombe: A Tribute to Four Decades of Wildlife Research, Education and Conservation. On Friday, October 6, the last day of "The Gathering," sculptor Bart Walter will present a slide lecture of his experiences sketching and sculpting chimpanzees. This program will be held from 2 to 3pm in the Koret Auditorium of the Main Library.
For more information on these free events, please call (415) 557-4277. Or contact Suellen Bilow (415) 557-4282
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