Dear Friend,

Here’s a glimpse of Ndume on a spring morning in 2002, working out a foraging puzzle in the yard.

To encourage natural foraging behavior, our gorilla caregivers would tuck breakfast inside containers and hide them around the enclosure.  On this morning, caregiver DeAnn pointed Ndume toward a box suspended in a net above his head — reaching it was not going to be simple.  

What I love about watching this footage is how methodical and strategic Ndume is.  He tries one approach, then another.  When the box does not yield, he adjusts and tries again. He doesn’t give up!

Researchers who study great apes have long been drawn to this kind of patient, flexible problem-solving — the willingness to adjust an approach when one does not work.  Watching Ndume here, I am reminded that what looks like determination in gorillas is also a window into how their minds work.

Of course, for Ndume, the reward at the end was the real point.

Note that Ndume now lives at the Cincinnati Zoo, after being transferred there in 2019, a year after Koko’s passing.  We miss him dearly and visit him every year.  We will keep you updated on his progress.

With Koko love,

Penny Patterson
President, CEO and Founder
The Gorilla Foundation / koko.org

Conservation through Communication

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