Koko is most probably one of the most popular animals in the world. According to her trainer Francine “Penny” Patterson, this beautiful gorilla is able to understand more than 1000 signs and approximately 2000 English words! For some years now, she has been telling her trainers that she wants to raise a baby gorilla and thus, helping Koko in adopting a baby became one of the Gorilla Foundation’s primary initiatives.
This amazing video shows some wonderful indications on how Koko would teach her baby to sign, creating exciting possibilities for new avenues of interspecies communication research, and enabling breakthroughs in captive gorilla care management and conservation.
Koko is also one of the few non-humans known to keep a pet. On her birthday in July of 1984, she selected a gray male Manx from a litter of abandoned kittens and named him “All Ball.” Penny said that Koko cared for the kitten as if it were her very own baby gorilla.
Sadly, All Ball later died after being hit by a car on a logging road, and Koko’s heart was broken. In this clip, Koko gets a doll and we can see how she interacts with it. She teaches the doll to sign and holds it like it’s a real baby. She has a gorilla doll, a monkey, and a human baby doll. She kisses all of them and is so gentle with them. But the most amazing thing is she teaches all of them to sign.
Watch Koko and her interaction with a doll in the video below! What are your thoughts about this story? Don’t forget to share in the comments!
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