Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Instructors taught Koko a version of American Sign Language
Koko the gorilla, who is said to have been able to communicate by using more than 1,000 hand signs, has died in California at the age of 46.
Instructors taught her a version of American Sign Language and say she used it to convey thoughts and feelings.
The abilities of the gorilla, who also apparently understood some spoken English, were documented by animal psychologist Francine Patterson.
She adopted and named pets, including a kitten she called All Ball.
"Koko - the gorilla known for her extraordinary mastery of sign language, and as the primary ambassador for her endangered species - passed away yesterday [Wednesday] morning in her sleep at the age of 46," a Gorilla Foundation press release said.
"Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy. She was beloved and will be deeply missed."
The gorilla, who was said to have an IQ of between 75 and 95, could understand 2,000 words of spoken English. The average IQ for humans on many tests is 100, and most people score somewhere between 85 and 115.
Skip Twitter post by @NatGeo Koko the gorilla, who appeared on our cover, could chat, tease, and even argue with scientists using sign language. She has died at the age of 46. pic.twitter.com/JX9vlFzpiI — National Geographic (@NatGeo) June 21, 2018 Report
She was born at the San Francisco Zoo in 1971. Dr Patterson began working with Koko the following year and taught her sign language, the Gorilla Foundation said.
Some scientists have cast doubt on the extent of the gorilla's communicative skills.
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However, she was the subject of many documentaries and was the cover star for magazines including National Geographic.
She also gained public attention for caring for cats.
When her tailless tabby kitten All Ball escaped and was killed by a car in 1984, Dr Patterson wrote that she had displayed grief.
Koko lived most of her life at the Gorilla Foundation in California.
She was filmed meeting the late actor Robin Williams in 2001.
Koko and her longtime caretaker, Penny Patterson, are seen with a kitten. (Ron Cohn/The Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org)
Koko, a beloved gorilla that learned to communicate with humans and then stole their hearts, has died.
The Gorilla Foundation said the 46-year-old celebrity ape — a western lowland gorilla — died in her sleep earlier this week at the organization’s preserve in Northern California. The Gorilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to study and protect great apes, said in a statement that Koko will be most remembered “as the primary ambassador for her endangered species.”
“Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the statement said. “She was beloved and will be deeply missed.”
[How a coughing ape is changing our ideas about animals, humans and language]
The gorilla was born at the San Francisco Zoo on Independence Day in 1971, according to the Gorilla Foundation, and named Hanabi-ko, which means “fireworks child” in Japanese, though she was mainly known by her nickname, Koko.
It was in San Francisco where the newborn gorilla met a budding psychologist, Francine “Penny” Patterson. By the next year, Patterson had started teaching the animal an adapted version of American Sign Language, which she dubbed “Gorilla Sign Language,” or GSL. Video footage from that time shows Patterson playing games with the young gorilla and trying to teach her a new way to communicate.
Koko the gorilla has sadly died aged 46
Here's the story of her life 🦍💚 pic.twitter.com/GFzfSvydcp — BBC Earth (@BBCEarth) June 21, 2018
It grew into a decades-long relationship that revealed a deeper side of Koko and her apparent ability to understand — and the enchanting animal gained widespread attention because of it.
Koko was featured in National Geographic twice — the first time in 1978 when a photo she took of herself made the magazine’s cover. This week, National Geographic republished that cover story, written by Patterson, along with an editor’s note stating: “Current research paints a more complicated picture of primate sign language than was understood in the 1970s. We are presenting this article as originally published; the science within may not be up-to-date.”
Koko the gorilla, pictured here on the October 1978 cover of National Geographic, has died at 46. pic.twitter.com/DlHANqVYlE — National Geographic (@NatGeoMag) June 21, 2018
In the story, Patterson wrote about Koko’s ability to understand and respond to human emotion — even argue, revealing her ornery side. Patterson described a moment between one of Patterson’s assistants, Cathy Ransom, and Koko in which the assistant pointed to a poster of the gorilla and asked her about it.
According to Patterson, here’s how the conversation — in GSL — went:
Cathy had asked Koko, “What’s this?”
“Gorilla,” signed Koko. “Who gorilla?” asked Cathy. “Bird,” responded a bratty Koko, and things went downhill from there. “You bird?” asked Cathy. “You,” countered Koko. “Not me, you are bird,” rejoined Cathy, mindful that “bird” can be an insult in Koko’s lexicon. “Me gorilla,” asserted Koko. “Who bird?” asked Cathy. “You nut,” replied Koko, resorting to another of her insults. (For Koko, “bird” and “nut” switch from descriptive to pejorative terms by changing the position in which the sign is made.) “Why me nut?” asked Cathy. “Nut, nut,” signed Koko. “You nut, not me,” Cathy replied.
Finally Koko gave up. Plaintively she signed, “Damn me good,” and walked away signing, “Bad.”
Some experts, however, have questioned Patterson’s methods and Koko’s abilities. As Slate reported four years ago: “In the past few decades there has been a spirited debate about whether apes are using language in the same way humans do.”
In 1980, according to Slate, Herbert Terrace, a psychologist who worked with a chimpanzee in a language study at Columbia University, expressed skepticism about apes’ way with words.
Terrace wrote:
Nim’s signing, and that of the other signing apes as well, appears to be motivated more by a desire to obtain some object, or to engage in some activity, than a desire to exchange information for its own sake. First the ape tries to obtain what it wants directly — without signing. When reminded by its teacher that it must sign, the ape often signs until the teacher complies with its request. The critical question is whether the ape is generating sentences or simply running on with its hands until it gets what it wants. Careful scrutiny of the ape’s utterances favor the latter interpretation.
In any case, Koko was a unique ape that connected not only with humans but also with other animals.
She loved baby dolls. And kittens.
And she built relationships with Mister Rogers, Betty White and Robin Williams.
When Williams died in 2014, the Gorilla Foundation said that Koko took it hard.
After Patterson told Koko that Williams had died, the foundation said, “Koko was quiet and looked very thoughtful.” Later, the organization said, “Koko became very somber, with her head bowed and her lip quivering.”
In its 2014 article on apes, Slate further questioned whether Koko really understood the tragedy, noting: “Was Koko really mourning Robin Williams? How much are we projecting ourselves onto her and what are we reading into her behaviors? Animals perceive the emotions of the humans around them, and the anecdotes in the release could easily be evidence that Koko was responding to the sadness she sensed in her human caregivers.”
Following Koko’s death this week, the Gorilla Foundation said she leaves a legacy.
“Koko’s capacity for language and empathy has opened the minds and hearts of millions,” the statement read. “She has been featured in multiple documentaries and appeared on the cover of National Geographic twice. The first cover, in October of 1978, featured a photograph Koko had taken of herself in a mirror. The second issue, in January of 1985, included the story of Koko and her kitten, All Ball. Following the article, the book Koko’s Kitten was published and continues to be used in elementary schools worldwide.
“Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world.”
Koko, the western lowland gorilla that died in her sleep Tuesday at age 46, was renowned for her emotional depth and ability to communicate in sign language.
She became an international celebrity during the course of her life, with a vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs and the ability to understand 2,000 words of spoken English, according to The Gorilla Foundation.
National Geographic magazine featured Koko of its cover twice: First in October 1978, with a photograph that she took of herself in a mirror (perhaps making it one of the earliest prominent animal selfies). She also appeared a second time on the cover in January 1985, in a story about Koko and her pet kitten.
Koko became the most visible member of her species, the western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla), which is considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
“Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the foundation said in a statement. (Read more about ape intelligence.)
Research and work with Koko, and other gorillas, has revealed that great apes have language skills similar to small children. Anne Russon, a researcher at York University, said that teaching Koko and other animals sign language, as opposed to solely attempting verbal communication, was a “great leap forward.”
It was "important because great apes don't have the same control over sound creation as humans do," Russon told National Geographic for a previous story on ape intelligence.
Pushing the Boundaries
Born July 4, 1971, Koko was born Hanabi-ko, Japanese for "fireworks child,” at the San Francisco Zoo. Researcher Francine Patterson began working with Koko in 1972, teaching her sign language.
She was later moved to Stanford, and soon thereafter Patterson and collaborator Ronald Cohn founded The Gorilla Foundation. In 1979 Koko moved along with the group to the Santa Cruz Mountains.
In addition to language, Koko's behavior also revealed emotions similar to those of humans. (See stunning photos of gorillas.)
For instance, when her kitten got hit by a car and died, she became quite upset. Cohn told the Los Angeles Times in 1985, when they first signed to her about the kitten’s passing, “she acted like she didn't hear us for about 10 minutes," Cohn said.
"Then she started whimpering—a distinct hooting sound that gorillas make when they are sad. We all started crying together.
View Images Cover Photograph by Ronald Cohn, National Geographic
In 2012, Koko learned to play the recorder, exhibiting a degree of breath control that was previously thought to be unique to humans.
Besides her National Geographic covers, she appeared in several documentaries, and famously interacted with actor Robin Williams in a 2001 video, in which she played with Williams and tried on his glasses.
Image: The Gorilla Foundation/Koko.org
Koko, arguably the world’s most famous gorilla, has died at the age of 46. Known for her ability to communicate through sign language, Koko forever changed our conceptions of primate intelligence and emotional capacities.
Earlier today, the Gorilla Foundation, a not-for-profit that cared for Koko, announced the sad news in a tweet.
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“Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world,” noted the Gorilla Foundation.
Koko, who passed away on June 19 in Woodside, California, died at the age of 46, which is actually quite old for gorillas, who rarely make it to 50. The female lowland gorilla was born on the 4th of July in 1971, and was originally named Hanabiko, which is Japanese for “fireworks child.”
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Image: The Gorilla Foundation/kiko.org
Koko was famous for her remarkable social skills, namely her ability to communicate with humans through American Sign Language. Koko, as part of psychologist Penny Patterson’s thesis project, was taught to sign when she was still an infant. Over the years she acquired well over 1,000 signs, 600 of which she used on a regular basis. Originally based at the San Francisco Zoo, Patterson’s project is now considered the longest-running ape language study in the world.
By the time she was seven years old, Koko had already become a household name. She appeared twice on the cover of National Geographic—a 1978 cover in which she famously took her own picture in a mirror, and a 1985 cover in which she snuggles her pet kitten.
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Researchers say Koko, who enjoyed picture books based on the “Three Little Kittens” and “Puss in Boot” stories, asked for a pet cat in 1983 and flatly refused a stuffed animal substitute, saying it made her “sad.” Finally she was granted a kitten, which she named All Ball. Koko would play with the kitten for hours, but when All Ball was fed up with being babied she’d wiggle away from Koko, prompting the gorilla to sign “obnoxious” and “cat.” Sadly, All Ball was struck and killed by a car just six months later. Koko appeared to express sadness over losing the pet, signing “cat,” “cry,” “have-sorry,” and “Koko-love.”
Koko would go on to meet with such celebrities and Betty White, Fred Rogers and Robin Williams. In 2012, she learned to play the recorder, showing that gorillas are capable of controlling their breathing, a capacity previously thought impossible for nonhuman primates. In 1976, the Gorilla Foundation was formed to house Koko and a male gorilla named Michael, who also knew how to sign and died in 2000. It took on another male named Ndume in 1991, who was housed alongside Koko until her death this past Tuesday.
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Over the course of the sign language project, some critics, such as linguist Noam Chomsky and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, complained that Koko didn’t really understand what she was doing or saying, and that she was merely copying the researchers’ hand movements, or trying to earn rewards and praise. This is becoming an increasingly minority position given what scientists are learning about primate intelligence and their innate communication skills.
Researchers have since taught other great apes to sign, including chimps, bonobos, and orangutans. It’s generally agreed that, while these animals can learn to convey words in meaningful ways, they lack the capacity for syntax and proper grammar. When signing, Koko and other primates express a word here or there, sometimes stringing several words together to express more complicated meanings. But uttering complex, grammatically correct is considered beyond their capacities.
Nonhuman primates cannot speak like us because they don’t have human-like vocal cords, which can close fully. Nonhuman primates have also been taught to communicate with keyboards, expressing themselves through graphics-based, symbolic languages.
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[The Gorilla Foundation, NPR, LA Times]
