About a gorilla.
Who can communicate though American Sign Language.
Ah, this is the life. We do love our primates.
Koko: A Talking Gorilla.
I had mixed feelings about this story/situation. Koko is an experiment, after all. Taken from her family because of an illness at the San Francisco Zoo in the early 1970s, she was kept at Stanford University for the sign language study after she was free of her illness.
Taken from her family, yes, but worse off? No, not really. First of all, the footage of the gorilla home at the zoo was deplorable. This documentary was done in the '70s so it's interesting to see how things were done then, both in the treatment of animals and the production of documentaries (I've seen better). The zoo had the gorillas on cement. I'm sure it's updated now but, really, Koko had it just fine with her access to a fridge and frequent tree-climbing, something that the gorillas at the San Fran Zoo didn't appear to have.
Koko is still working with Dr. Penny Patterson today. In the footage from the '70s, we also meet Michael. The hope was that the two would breed eventually. I don't think that happened because there was no mention of it on the website. Sadly, Michael died too of heart failure a few years ago. Reading about how Koko dealt with the loss of her friend is heartbreaking. Click here to see the Koko website.
I was excited to see Dr. Roger Fouts in the documentary. He is the author of one of my favorite books, "Next of Kin". It's the story of his experiences with a chimpanzee named Washoe. She was taken from NASA studies and taught sign language by Fouts. Many of the other chimps Fouts worked with were taught to sign too. He would go from home to home where various chimps in the study were living with humans (this is called cross-fostering. I know you were SO wondering) and the stories were hilarious; Moja loved to play dress-up, Lucy would brew tea for his visits and loved to flip through Playboy magazine. Eventually, he established an island sanctuary for them. So, for study purposes, they were taught sign, and for being a chimp purposes, they were brought to the island preserve to play together and communicate in sign and in chimp speak daily. Surrounded by a moat, the chimps were safe to roam because they sink like rocks in water. As a result there was never concern that they would take off and put themselves in danger. One time, Fouts watched as Washoe dashed into the water to pull out another chimp who had somehow made his way into the water and drowned. Instinctively, Washoe knew she would sink just as quickly, but she still went after her fellow chimp. The chimp survived thanks to Washoe's efforts. It can be noted here that it would take many humans to put the weight of a full-grown chimp from the water. The book is a fascinating look into the intelligence and thoughtfulness of the species.
Now, Fouts has a sanctuary for Washoe and her family (she did breed in captivity). They live at the Chimpanzee and Human Communication Institute in Washington. I will have to make it a plan to go there someday.
The Institute is interesting in that the humans have no physical contact with the chimps anymore aside from coming into their large structure to clean their homes or feed the chimps. Aside form that, all signing happens through the cage. I find that so interesting. As though the humans have decided that the chimps may have been born in labs or rescued from flight experiments, but they still belong with one another and only with one another.
In exploring their website, I was sad to learns that Washoe recently died of old age.
Washoe
1 comment:
Is it just me or is that chimp flipping me off??
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