Two years after the death of Koko the speaking gorilla, scientists are still baffled

"We were told in the Bible that a Donkey spoke. Many didn't believe it, they dismissed such a great miracle as a fictitious tale. Koko the speaking gorilla had taught us during her lifetime to respect ourselves, believe in God and respect other creatures"....








The theory of evolution had suggested that humans and other primates have the same origin. This led to an age long arguments and disagreement. Many feel that a wild and animalistic origin of man is impossible as humans are way advanced than other animals. Others who wield the sword of divine creation find such animal origin of man to be weird, abominable and unacceptable.


Well, Koko the speaking gorilla did well in her lifetime to change human perspective. Born July 4, 1971, Koko brought to reality what would have been normally dismissed as myth- human- animal interaction!

Koko was born at the San Francisco and lived most of her life in Woodsise, California at The gorilla fundation's preserve in the Santa Cruz mountains.






Koko the gorilla is best known for a lifelong study to teach her a silent form of communication, American Sign Language. But some of the simple sounds she has learned may change the perception that humans are the only primates with the capacity for speech.

Koko died in her sleep during the morning of June 19, 2018, at the Gorilla Foundation's preserve in Woodside, California, at the age of 46, but her life was indeed a breakthrough in evolutionary biology.

Two years after her death, her impact lives on especially on the basis of human perspective of other animals (primates). Scientists are still baffled over the intelligence of the non human primate.

Her instructor and caregiver, Francine Patterson, reported that Koko had an active vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs of what Patterson calls "Gorilla Sign Language" (GSL)This puts Koko's vocabulary at the same level as a three-year-old human. In contrast to other experiments attempting to teach sign language to non-human primates, Patterson simultaneously exposed Koko to spoken English from an early age. It was reported that Koko understood approximately 2,000 words of spoken English, in addition to the signs.






To many, her life was a true evidence that humans originated from apes. Many conservationists argued that koko's life is a proof that we (humans) have brothers in the wilds and are not necessarily superior.