22 June 2018

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RIP KOKO the gorilla master of Sign Language Understood 2000 English Words

RIP KOKO the gorilla master of Sign Language Understood 2000 English Words

Koko, the gorilla who mastered sign language and showed the world what great apes can do, has died.

She died Tuesday in her sleep at age 46, The Gorilla Foundation said in a statement.
"Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy," the release said. "She was beloved and will be deeply missed."

She was said to have understood some 2,000 words of spoken English, and could usually keep up with conversations.

Her keepers said she understood some spoken English, too.

She liked to read and be read to, a blog post by The Gorilla Foundation said. She purred at parts of books she particularly enjoyed. She was very maternal toward kittens, and has had several throughout her lifetime. Her "tenderness" showed people how loving a gorilla can be, the foundation said.

She was widely promoted through appearances and the release of a picture book about her and a kitten that lived with her. She has also been exhibited as a painter.

Koko was born Hanabi-ko (Japanese for "Fireworks Child") on July 4, 1971 at the San Francisco Zoo.
Dr Francine "Penny" Patterson began working with Koko the following year and taught her sign language, the foundation said.
Researchers moved her to Stanford in 1974 and established The Gorilla Foundation, a non-profit organization that works to preserve and protect gorillas.

Koko and The Gorilla Foundation later moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains.

Koko was among a handful of primates who could communicate using sign language; others included Washoe, a female chimpanzee in Washington state, and Chantek, a male orangutan in Atlanta.

In 1998, Koko took to the Internet in what was billed as the first "interspecies" chat, relaying comments such as "I like drinks" via a human interpreter to tens of thousands of online participants.

The gorilla was featured in many documentaries and appeared on the cover of National Geographic magazine twice, once - in October 1978 - in a photograph Koko had taken of herself in a mirror.

Photo KOKO on National Geographic Cover




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Friday,June 22, 2018

Tags – RIP KOKO Sign Language Master

2 comments:

Kirtivasan Ganesan June 24, 2018  

Forgive is a word KOKO probably knew.

SM June 26, 2018  

@Kirtivasan Ganesan
thanks good that he did not learn Revolution and freedom