Knowing Koko

Did you watch Harry's Law Wednesday night?  If you didn't, it was a story about a gorilla who knew sign language and the legal battle between the zoo that owned him and the woman who wanted to provide an intelligent being with a better living situation.  I had two cousins email me who thought it was a real gorilla on the show.  Pretty amazing visual effects, but even though the gorilla wasn't real, it was most likely BASED on a real gorilla who knows sign language.  Her name is Koko and she lives with a woman named Penny Patterson in California at The Gorilla Foundation.

Koko has been around for quite a while.  Last year she celebrated her 40th birthday.  Back in the 1990s when I started taking classes at the local community college, I took two classes of sign language strictly with the hopes of meeting her or working with her some day. Of course, I've forgotten it all by now.

Source:  The Gorilla Foundation

Koko knows over 1000 signs in American Sign Language and understands even more spoken English. Like Kanzi, she's one very smart great ape.

And like the woman on Harry's Law, Penny Patterson believes that gorillas should be granted the status of personhood.  To learn more, click here and here and on the two Gorilla Foundation links above.  To see a video of Koko meeting Betty White, click here.