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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: "Koko on the Ball" by Lucas Slavik |
January 26, 2006 |
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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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Koko has always been "on the ball."
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I enter Koko's kitchen to visit. Usually I ask her if I can
close her into one of her rooms and clean the vacant one,
but today as soon as I entered her kitchen she greeted me
with:
Koko points to the control panel that is used to close off one
of her rooms for cleaning. Lights-off was originally used to
communicate flipping a light switch on or off, but Koko has
expanded its use to other contexts. She often uses lights-off
to tell us to turn the TV on and off, open or close a window,
and in this case, operate the switches that control a gate within
her enclosure.
After closing off her room and cleaning, I return to her kitchen
at 12:02 pm, two minutes after she normally gets her noon drink
and supplements.
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Koko: |
Kiss#.
Drink. |
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Lucas: |
Time
drink? |
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Koko: |
Drink,
drink, purr#. |
Both Koko and Ndume are highly aware of the timing of specific
activities scheduled in their day, down to the minute when it
involves something going into their mouths!
#
Note: In Koko's responses above, 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.
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. |
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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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