Broody gorilla who adopted kittens as her babies
SHE has never had a child of her own. But Koko the gorilla shows plenty of maternal instinct as she tenderly cradles a tiny kitten in her arms. The great ape, who has been kept in captivity all her life, was introduced to the young cat and its siblings as part of her 44th birthday celebrations.
As these heart-warming photographs show, Koko also happily played a game with a kitten and ribbon on a stick, and even l et the feline youngsters climb up her back.
Koko was born in the San Francisco Zoo in 1971 and has lived at The Gorilla Foundation, in Woodside, California, since 1979. She has spent four decades living immersed with humans and interacting for hours a day with psychologist Penny Patterson and biologist Ron Cohn.
She can understand 1,000 words of American sign language and a further 2,000 words of spoken English, although there has been controversy about whether Koko’s own use of signs i s simple, reward-related mimicry or something more meaningful.
Her mothering instincts have been clear before because she often signs the word ‘baby’, carries gorilla dolls in her arms, and even pretends that her dolls can sign by moving their arms and hands.
During her meeting with the kittens, she made the sign for ‘cat’ followed by ‘baby’ — telling her trainers the kittens were now her adopted children. She also asked in sign language for one of the kittens to be placed on her head.
Despite her huge hands being the size of the young cats, Koko was gentle with the tiny balls of fluff when they arrived in a cardboard box, carefully flicking a finger out to stroke them.
A foundation spokesman says: ‘Koko got her birthday wish — not only did one kitten come to visit, but a whole litter.
‘Koko fell in love with them and they with her. She has adopted these two kittens into her family and it has energised her world.
‘Not only have Koko’s maternal and play instincts kicked in, but she is signing more and generating new content every day that can be used by The Gorilla Foundation to create empathy for great apes.’