Koko is a 37 year old gorilla that communicates using over 1000 words in American Sign Language. She can combine these words in novel ways, for example “drink-fruit” (melon), “water-bird” (swan) and “animal-person” (gorilla). Her full name is “Hanabi-Ko, meaning ‘fireworks child’ in Japanese (a reference to her date of birth, the Fourth of July).”
After watching the documentary Koko the Talking Gorilla my thoughts are all over the map. I agree with the critics that Koko seems to communicate just for the reward of a sweet treat. What seems equally clear is that most of the communication Koko has with her human mom Penny is not on the regular gorilla level. Koko is being asked to communicate on the level of a human child. When Koko wigs out its hard to blame her; though well treated she lives in confinement. Penny reacts by making her clean up the mess, or go to her room. She asks Koko why she is “bad.” This all strikes me as odd.
Its not just about having a gorilla communicate in a human fashion (through ASL) but to step into a human role in society. The zookeeper is portrayed as the bad guy, but he does make the valid point that Koko may find it hard to mate with other gorillas because of her human-shaped identity. The documentary was filmed in 1978; 30 years on and Koko has not made any gorilla babies. This may be sad, but Koko’s life is full and happy. Koko cares for cats, chooses the menu on her birthday and opens presents, eats peanut butter with chop sticks and chats on AOL. Kokopix, her photo blog, is lively and insightful.
Koko even video conferenced with the world’s second most famous gorilla, Snowflake the albino, before he passed away in 2003.
Come to think of it, I am not sure that we Homos use words to obtain much more than sweet treats either. I mean, if its not a sweet treat, why talk about it?
PS Penny is a bad Homo
What is really interesting is that male gorillia’s can not learn sign language after they reach puberity. The learn words for the first 5-6 years then lose it all at puberty