Nature. A conversation with Koko

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Summary

Koko is a western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) who uses a variant of American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with humans. She possesses a vocabulary of over 1000 word signs and als...

Koko is a western lowland gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla) who uses a variant of American Sign Language (ASL) to communicate with humans. She possesses a vocabulary of over 1000 word signs and also understands spoken English. Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson has worked with Koko since infancy and taught her to sign. The video traces Koko's life history, showing film footage taken by Dr. Ronald Cohn, from Dr. Patterson's first attempts at teaching Koko ASL, through Koko's highly publicized time with her kitten, All Ball, to her current struggles to find a suitable mate. Also shown are Michael and Ndume, two male gorillas living at Patterson's Gorilla Foundation in California. Behaviors depicted include: playing, chase play, eating, and signing. In addition, Michael and Koko are shown painting. Koko's apparent communication abilities give new meaning to the ideas of animal intelligence and interspecies communication.

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