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In
this series, we share our gorilla research and care activities
with you through the following features:
1)
Caregiver Corner (what
it's like to interact and communicate with gorillas Koko, Ndume
and Michael)
2) Research Revelations
(what we're learning through interspecies communication and
what it means for humanity)
prepared
by our staff under the supervision of Dr. Penny Patterson, Director
of Research. (Journal PhotoBlog
Archive) |
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| Caregiver Corner: "Who's Caring for Whom?" by Lucas and Laura |
June 03, 2005 |
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Dr.
Francine "Penny" Patterson has a Ph.D. in Developmental
Psychology from Stanford. She is President and Research
Director of The Gorilla Foundation, and a Member
of the Board of ApeNet - a consortium of foundations
supporting the welfare of great apes through interspecies
communication. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of
"Gorilla, the journal of The Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org."
"Penny's Journal" provides insight into her facinating
relationship with Koko and a way to share with us
her experiences as Koko lives, learns and communicates
"The
differences between humans and gorillas are greatly
overshadowed by what we have in common — and by
communicating with them, we can learn as much about
our own true nature as theirs." Penny Patterson |
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The recent rainy weather forced both gorillas to spend some extra time indoors.
The following are two accounts, one with Koko and one with Ndume that describe
how the gorillas passed the time while stuck inside. In Koko's responses, the
pound symbol (#) after a word indicates that it is a vocalization by Koko; otherwise
the word or phrase represents her response in American Sign Language. The kiss#
vocalization is commonly used to get the caregiver’s attention.
Koko the Hostess, by Lucas Slavik
May 2, 2005
I enter Koko’s kitchen to spend the afternoon with her. Koko comes up to
the steel mesh to greet and inspect me. Koko loves to get a thorough look at her
visitors, checking their ears, hair, and teeth. Once satisfied with her inspection
of me, Koko meticulously builds herself a nice comfortable nest of blankets and
settles down for a nap.
Koko: Sleep
there.
Lucas: Okay, it’s time for some rest and quiet.
Koko: Purr#.
I sit down on the floor. A few minutes pass.
Koko: Kiss#.
Sleep.
Lucas: Yes, I know, I’m sleeping.
A few more minutes go by as Koko rests in her nest. I continue to sit on the floor.
Koko looks up at me.
Koko. Kiss#.
Sleep.
Lucas: Koko, what is it?
Koko: Kiss#.
Sleep there.
Koko points to her closet where a pad and pillow are kept for the caregivers to
sit on.
Lucas: Oh, you want me to use the pad and pillows don’t
you?
Koko: Good.
I take out the pads and pillows and make myself a comfortable place to sit.
Koko: Purr#.
Lucas: Koko, that was very thoughtful of you.
Satisfied that I am now situated and comfortable, Koko relaxes and drifts off
into a nap.
Ndume Plays Chase, by Laura Mullen
May 5, 2005:
On this rainy and foggy day I was hanging out with Ndume in
his building. Like Koko’s building, it is divided into
three rooms by steel mesh and gates, which we refer to as A,
B and the kitchen. The rooms are in a row with the kitchen being
the human area, which is next to the A room, followed by the
B room. One of Ndume’s favorite games is “chase”
in which he runs to his B window and then I run to the outside
of the B window, and once I am there, he runs to the steel mesh
at the kitchen, on the opposite side of his building. As soon
as he is there, I run to the kitchen, poke my head in the door
and then he runs back to the B window, to start the game again.
I usually get tired from the game long before he does.
On this particular day Ndume picked up a rubber squeaky toy
that I had given to him weeks before, and held it in his hand
and squeaked it as we played. Ndume seemed to get some sort
of pleasure from making a great deal of noise. Towards the end
of our game, I came into the kitchen and Ndume was sitting in
the middle of his floor with squeaky toy in hand and a big smile
on his face. He then picked up the squeaky toy and started hitting
it against his head. He started out doing it softly then realized
that it made a slightly different squeak when pressed against
the head. This seemed to excite him, so he started hitting faster
and faster and with that the smile got bigger and bigger. “You
are having a good time with that, buddy, aren’t you?”
With that he popped up and we continued playing chase, squeaky
toy in hand.
Ndume makes me laugh every day; he finds new ways to entertain
me whenever I am with him. His silliness and playfulness always
keep me amused throughout the day.
Lucas Slavik
is the Gorilla Caregiver Manager for the Gorilla Foundation. After spending
much of his time in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and central coast of California
appreciating and exploring the natural environment, Lucas joined the Gorilla
Foundation in an effort to "preserve this world and bring about awareness
of its rapid destruction." With a degree from the University of California,
Santa Barbara, Lucas worked as a research aid doing environmental surveys
on endangered frogs in the Sierras, before beginning his primate career
supervising a research facility that housed roughly 60 squirrel monkeys.
Working with gorillas like Koko and Ndume has been a natural next step for
Lucas in his quest to raise environmental awareness by creating empathy
for endangered species. |
 Laura
Mullen is a Research Assistant / Caregiver (and enrichment specialist)
for the Gorilla Foundation. Laura has a degree in anthropology and a minor
in primatology from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia where she studied
capuchin monkeys at Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center under world-renowned
research Dr. Frans de Waal.
After graduating, Laura moved out to San Francisco and started working as
a Veterinary Technician at the San Francisco SPCA Animal Shelter. Fascinated
by interspecies communication, Laura has always kept her eye on Koko and
her progress. She started taking sign language at age 12 after reading about
Project Koko. When job opportunities arose at TGF, she knew that it was
finally her time to get back into the field of primate conservation. |
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Please
email us at research_feedback@koko.org
if you have any questions, or would like to share an observation
or insight about the preceding interspecies conversations.
Your feedback can inform our research and is a vital part
of our mission.
Thank you,
Dr. Francine Penny Patterson
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