Koko the gorilla calls man ‘stupid’!
Have you heard the latest treatise — in song form — from Koko, the gorilla? “Man Stupid!”
That’s her proclamation, apparently, on the issue of climate change. She’s sounding the alarm for the environment and, to be honest, I think we had all better listen up, fast.
Full disclosure: I’ve always been a little ape over Hanabiko “Koko,” the gorilla who was born at San Francisco Zoo in 1971. As a child, when a lot of the other little girls wanted to be the heroic wildlife crusader Jane Goodall (who is undeniably formidable), I was mostly obsessed with the whole Koko thing. The very notion that this western lowland gorilla could speak sign language – something I cannot do — has always blown me away.
It’s not just about recognizing that animal intelligence is something we have no idea how to measure, although that’s a big part of the puzzle. What if their brains work so differently from ours that we simply can’t tell how mentally acute they really are? What if we aren’t perceptive enough to tell how perceptive they are?
It’s the doubt that really gets me. If we have no idea whether or not animals might be just as smart as we are, then why do we keep killing them and even eating them? That last bit was always very tricky for me as a kid who loved nothing more than a juicy charbroiled cheeseburger.
Now Koko has upped the ante on her relevance for humanity. Her keen insights into the imminent environmental devastation wrought by global warming seem particularly prescient in the Trump age. Apparently, it doesn’t take a science degree to tell that
humanity is on the verge of a cataclysmic mistake.
Apparently, Koko, who was taught sign language at the wee age of 1 and who has repeatedly demonstrated her empathy skills by adopting more than one kitten over the years, has now turned her attention to the destruction of the planet.
For the record, she’s not usually a hater. She’s always been a bright and amiable creature, from learning more than 2,000 words to palling around with the late, great Robin Williams. She even made sure to preface her warning with the kindly words “Koko man love — but man stupid.”
Clearly, she’s not going King Kong on us, and I suspect she doesn’t want to insult us. Perhaps she’s just trying to do a little simian intervention on the species that can’t seem to stop itself from despoiling natural resources. As she puts it, “Earth Koko love.”
In fact, what really freaks me out is that she seems to be trying to mother us, to prod us along into doing the right thing as though we are not-very-gifted children, which indeed may be the case, no?
To be sure, Koko has been briefed about global warming over the years, so it’s not like she came up with this message out of the blue. Still, it’s a notable act of protest, and if this isn’t the canary in the coal mine, I don’t know what is. While politicians argue over whether climate change is even happening, Koko has cut to the heart of the matter. She’s urging us to look at our tendency to fiddle while Rome burns.
The takeaway for me is the reminder that we aren’t the only ones who call this planet home. It’s like the first time you drive with the baby in the car, and you realize that life isn’t just about you anymore. There are other lives on the line. Koko lives here, too, and her voice should also matter.
Keep that in mind as you ponder Koko’s sage advice. I dare you to listen to Koko’s “Man Stupid!” anthem, a song in which they say 85 percent of the lyrics are her actual words and not have few doubts about which species just might be the smartest after all.
Come on, even if only the tiniest fraction of this ditty is an accurate reflection of what the gorilla actually thinks and feels about global warming, I think we’ve all got some serious chest-pounding to do.