No one can deny, Koko was real.

Why would an animal choose to bond with human beings and learn language? Quite possibly, a better and richer quality of life?

June 21, 2018
By Bill Chappell

Koko, the gorilla who became an ambassador to the human world through her ability to communicate, has died. She's seen here at age 4, telling psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson (left) that she is hungry. In the center is June Monroe, an interpreter for the deaf at St. Luke's Church, who helped teach Koko.

"The Gorilla Foundation (click here) is sad to announce the passing of our beloved Koko," the research center says, informing the world about the death of a gorilla who fascinated and elated millions of people with her facility for language.

Koko, who was 46, died in her sleep Tuesday morning, the Gorilla Foundation said. At birth, she was named Hanabi-ko — Japanese for "fireworks child," because she was born at the San Francisco Zoo on the Fourth of July in 1971. She was a western lowland gorilla.

"Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world," the Gorilla Foundation said.

Throughout her life, Koko's abilities made headlines. After she began communicating with humans through American Sign Language, she was featured by National Geographic — and she took her own picture (in a mirror) for the magazine's cover.

That cover came out in 1978, seven years after Koko was chosen as an infant to work on a language research project with the psychologist Francine "Penny" Patterson. In 1985, the magazine profiled the affectionate relationship between the gorilla and her kitten: Koko and All Ball....