A GREAT APE
Koko, gorilla who learned to ‘talk,’ dies
Koko, the cat-loving gorilla who touched the the world with her compassion, intelligence and mastery of sign language, has died.
The western lowland gorilla died Tuesday in her sleep at age 46, the Gorilla Foundation said in a statement.
“Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the foundation said.
Born at the San Francisco Zoo in 1971, Koko began learning sign language from Dr. Francine (Penny) Patterson when she was just 1 year old. Researchers moved the lovable primate to Stanford three years later and established the Gorilla Foundation, which was ultimately relocated to California’s Santa Cruz mountains.
Over the years, Koko managed to master and understand more than 1,000 different signs and 2,000 words of spoken English. In 1983, she famously used her impressive vocabulary to ask for a cat for C r stmas.
Unmoved by the stuffed cat researchers originally gave her, Koko continued to sign “sad” until they gave in and brought her a litter of kittens for her birthday, according to Time.
The gorilla picked a gray and white feline named All Ball, which she loved and cared for as her own.
Koko was catapulted to fame after she appeared on a 1978 National Geographic cover in a photo she took of herself in a mirror. She would later appear on the cover again in 1985 with All Ball, accompanying a story detailing their friendship.
The cat was hit and killed by a car a year earlier, which devastated Koko. Researchers were shocked by her passionate response.
“She started whimpering — a distinct hooting sound that all gorillas make when they are sad. We all started crying together,” Gorilla Foundation Biologist Ron Cohn told the Los Angeles Times in a 1985 interview.
Koko then signed “Sleep. Cat,” by folding her hands together and placing them at the side of her head, Cohn said.
The gorilla, who would go on to care for several felines over the course of her life, was also the star of the 1990 children’s book “Koko’s Kittens,” which detailed her affinity for cats and remains a fixture in elementary school classrooms and libraries.
In addition to her feline friends, Koko had no shortage of celebrity pals in her innercircle. In 2001, Robin Williams visited the California Center and quickly hit it off with the charming gorilla.
Video of their interaction shows Koko at one point snatching the comedian’s glasses and putting them on her own head. The pair is also shown laughing it up and tickling each other.