Dear Friend,

Watch as I present Koko with a gorilla puppet. She notices something I miss at first: the curled tongue inside the puppet’s slightly open mouth.

Koko not only noticed the detail, but also drew my attention to it.

Moments like this remind me not just of how observant she was, but of how much she wanted to share what she noticed. Great apes pay close attention to subtle details in the world around them, and they can also direct others to those details in meaningful ways.

That kind of shared attention is part of how gorillas and other great apes engage with both their surroundings and one another. 

With Koko love,

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

Conservation through Communication

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Our Federal Tax ID is: 942-38-6151