Gorilla (Koko) Who Speaks Sign Language, Calls For Dentist

[matcom]

<snip>

WOODSIDE, Calif. -- How unusual is this? You have a pain in your tooth so you call a dentist? It's very unusual -- if you happen to be a gorilla.

Koko the gorilla used American Sign Language to signal her handlers she had a pain in her mouth. They gave her a pain chart with a scale of one to 10. Koko pointed to nine -- and 10.

And since they had to sedate her, they decided to check her out from head-to-toe -- her first full medical exam in 20 years.

Koko, who has mastered about 1,000 signs, celebrated her 33rd birthday July 4. While gorillas in captivity are known to live into their 50s, they are susceptible to heart disease and a thickening of the arteries.

Doctors have pronounced her fit. And, oh yes, they took care of the tooth, too.

http://www.wftv.com/news/3632163/detail.html

[GOPisEvil]

1. Wow.

I know humans that don't communicate that well.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

3. I know some humans...

Who don't look as good as Koko, as well. ;-)

[commander bunnypants]

2. Awesome

DDQM

[Squeech]

4. Koko rocks!

I was a big fan back in the '80s. (So was Frank Zappa; his record Waka/Jawaka is dedicated to Koko, among others.)

Haven't followed her story lately. There's a web site (of course) run by Dr. Penny Patterson, who runs the whole project, and whose idea it was to teach sign language to a gorilla in the first place. But last I looked, the web site was largely a fundraising vehicle, to help keep Koko in the style to which she has become accustomed, and there was no new hard news on it, last I saw.

Dr. Patterson has been burned by the anthropology and linguistics communities, many of whom feel that she must be faking her results since it's "obvious" that language is solely a human attribute. So she's more than a little paranoid. I suspect this is gonna be one of those paradigm shifts in science where humanity won't really accept language use in other primates until a lot of contrarians die off.

[bobbieinok]

5. using sign language was a real breakthrough

[Hell Hath No Fury]

6. Washoe...

Roger Fouts has been working with chimps and sign language -- his book "Next of Kin" just about changed my life.

The amazing thing is the chimps (just like Koko) have taken ASL and created their own version of it, with signs and sign combinations that are their own. Roger Fouts has worked for decades with a female chimp names Washoe teaching her sign language and studying her abilties to communicate with it.

Here's the kicker: When Washoe had learned ASL and then had children, she taught them sign language! She passed on that knowledge to another generation of chimps!

For a long time science said the things that made us different (better than?) other animals was tool use, language, and self-awareness. Washoe and Koko have shown us that there are other species on this planet share those capabilities.

Perhaps we will one day start treating our "brothers and sisters" with the respect they deserve.