Koko Reads Animalia


Koko looks through a new picture book sent to her as a gift from a Gorilla Foundation volunteer, Kimberly Sullivan. Koko signs about certain pictures that she likes: for example flowers when she sees some pretty flowers, red (and lipstick drink) when she sees a picture of red cats (she used to have a cat named lips lipstick). She also opens the gift card and signs cat, which is on the cover of the card. When Penny asks her to select her favorite picture in the book, she of course selects the red cats. But when Penny asks her to select a picture for Ron (co-founder Dr. Ron Cohn, her usual photographer and father figure) she selects the picture of an alligator featuring a large open mouth full of sharp teeth (alligator toys are Kokos favorites for scaring people, and herself). When Ron comes over to see Kokos pick, Koko seems a bit embarrassed and puts her hands over her face to sign unattention. Lesson: Gorillas can be extremely sensitive. Date Added: Mar 1, 2009 Videographer: Penny Patterson.

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27 Comments

  1. OMG! how is koko SO SMART!?!? find your favorite picture and goes straight to the red cats haha why dont they get koko another kitten?

  2. @VjerniBosanac

    there’s no way anybody is gonna show any aggression to that gorilla. if so, they got some real balls.

  3. I wonder that if Koko has a baby, would she try to teach it sign language? I think that would be very interesting.
    I also wonder if eyesight of gorillas is about the same as humans?

    lol @Downfader1

  4. Wait . . . why is a gorilla sitting in an office, and not in her natural or a psuedo-natural environment? She’s not a baby, a toy, or a dog. She’s a wild animal, and should be raised as such.

  5. Damn she flips through pages just like a human. It just goes to show that we are not super advanced or unique in this planet.

  6. you people make me laugh ahahah! ok the ape is remarkable i understand, but damn lay off i’m pretty sure she got beaten regularly thats why she shows RON the scary aligator with the open mouth-BECAUSE HE YELLS AT HER!

  7. A truely remarkable animal.. it’s sad how someone could get away with murdering this animal with no charge – its discusting.

  8. This is so sad because Koko remembers her cat that was run over. That’s why she likes the cat picture so much.

  9. Yeah it’s like, everything that Ive been taught in school tries to tell me that it’s a human wearing a costume. LOL! I love animals, or rather, other individuals.

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