Koko, the beloved gorilla that learned to communicate using sign language, has died Koko, a beloved gorilla that learned to communicate with humans and then stole their hearts, has died. The Gorilla Foundation said the 46-year-old celebrity ape — a western lowland gorilla — died in her sleep earlier this week at the organization’s preserve in Northern California. The Gorilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to study and protect great apes, said in a statement that Koko will be most remembered “as the primary ambassador for her endangered species.” “Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the statement said. “She was beloved and will be deeply missed.” [How a coughing ape is changing our ideas about animals, humans and language] The gorilla was born at the San Francisco Zoo on Independence Day in 1971, according to the Gorilla Foundation, and named Hanabi-ko, which means “fireworks child” in Japanese, though she was mainlyknown by her nickname, Koko. It was in San Francisco where the newborn gorilla met a budding animal psychologist, Francine “Penny” Patterson. By the next year, Patterson had started teaching the animal an adapted version of American Sign Language, which she dubbed “Gorilla Sign Language,” or GSL. Video footage from that time shows Patterson playing games with the young gorilla and trying to teach her a new way to communicate. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...as-died/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.2b3e8554b3b5
