Realizing Koko’s Legacy, Part 1: From King Kong to Koko’s Kitten
Episode 1 of a 7-part weekly video series: Realizing Koko’s Legacy. Part 1: From King Kong to Koko’s Kitten.
It is important that we never forget what Koko has taught us — that gorillas can be gentle, sensitive, intelligent and highly communicative. We can use this information and the results of Project Koko — a 46 year study exploring the limits of interspecies communication — to make the lives of gorillas in captivity more enriching, and protect the species as a whole, in Africa, from extinction by engendering the empathy necessary to end the mindless destruction of their lives and habitats.
Koko helped change the paradigm about what it means to be a gorilla, and the relationship between humans and gorillas — our similarities, differences, opportunities to connect, and the case for personhood of gorillas and other great apes.
But Koko wasn’t unique; it turns out that “all gorillas are Kokos.” Stay tuned for the rest of the series …
