Koko is thirty-six year old silverback gorilla that started learning sign language at the age of one. Michael (now deceased) was another silverback gorilla and a close friend to Koko who started learning sign language at the age of three. Both are examples of the first attempts at interspecies communication. Koko has a vocabulary of over 1,000 signs and understands around 2,000 words of spoken English. On the human scale, Koko has an IQ between 70 to 95 with 100 being an average human’s intelligence. Michael only had a vocabulary range of about 600 words. Researchers are keen on studying the intelligence of Koko and her behavior and hopes that it will lead to a better understanding of the species' physical and psychological requirements. Only through understanding can the necessary measures be taken to improve the treatment of gorillas.
I definitely believe that Koko is communicating through her sign language. Also, it seems that Koko has an excellent understanding of her environment by the way she paints. Also, Koko’s ability of placing words together and in different orders to make dissimilar meanings shows that she posses a considerate amount of understanding of syntax and a higher a level of thinking. I also found it attention-grabbing that a project that was only supposed to last four years wound up permanently lasting for over thirty years! I started thinking about what the outcome of this experiment would have been if it had only lasted for the four years that it was supposed to and the lack of knowledge we would have of our closest species’ potential if Koko had never been examined for the thirty years that she was. I am very fascinated to see where this will progress to after Koko mates and has children…Will her child and her be able to communicate through sign language or not? And what impact will this have on the future of their species? Will all primates in the wild eventually communicate through sign language or is that going to be just a characteristic of domesticated primates?
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Sadly enough, it is unlikely that Koko will ever have children to teach sign language to. Another gorilla was introduced to the project a few years after Koko started it, a male named Michael. However, as they grew up together they apparently percieved each other more as siblings than prospective mates. Gorillas also have social or genetic aversions to incest!
She was given the chance to select her own mate from videos and pictures, and picked a nice male to live with her in 1991. However, there's been no mating behavior taking place. They're working on building the pair a larger habitat with more privacy.
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