Hanabi-ko "Koko" the Gorilla has passed away today, June 21st, 2018 at the age of 46. She passed in her sleep. Koko was famed for being able to understand and communicate with humans using sign language. She was known for assisting researchers in understanding language better. She also widened our knowledge of animal empathy, from her keeping of pet cats over the years and shedding tears over their passings. She also was saddened over the death of her long-time friend Robin Williams in 2014. Thank you, Koko! Rest easy. Read more about Hanabi-ko and her contributions to science.
RIP Koko...I watched videos about her in my psych class the past semester and she was so open and friendly!
I read that as farmed and needed to read things twice. Rest in peace, Hanabi-ko. Thank you for your contributions.
rest in peace koko. also do not forget her companion who was and is kept alone in a trailer because her handlers liked koko better. also do not forget the sub-par conditions she was kept in, and the ploy that her understanding of sign language was. many researchers are critical that she actually understood sign language. this does not lessen her intelligence level or her importance as a very beloved animal, but it should remind us to view animals for their own behaviors and communication skills, and not base our respect of them on how like us they are. because i don’t like putting things about animals out there without backing it up. i hope the mods understand this is for educational purposes about koko, her handlers, and the foundation that is lauded for her work.
thank you for this information! i did not know about this. i know about those critical of koko and brushing her communication off as the clever han's effect (which i don't think it is, personally), but i did not know about the bad conditions she lived in. that upsets me.
i personally don’t believe that she was capable of the level of communication that the foundation in charge of her lead is to believe... part of that is because i don’t believe the foundation was genuinely in it for researching animals’ (primates specifically) capacity for human language and comprehension. i do very much believe the foundation in charge of koko was in it for fame and money. that being said, many animals show large vocabularies in their own right! parrots and other language-mimicking birds have shown quite a bit of understanding of human words! dolphins have regional dialects and insanely complex social groups! i just think the fault is trying to get animals to communicate with us the way we communicate. animals are brilliant and wonderful, and i kind of think it’s a shame we don’t put more effort into learning their languages.
Yes poor koko the gorilla that's really sad, rest easy koko, but how could y'all forget about my bro Harambe