Koko Reads Animalia

Koko looks through a new picture book sent to her as a gift from a Gorilla Foundation volunteer, Kimberly Sullivan. Koko signs about certain pictures that she likes: for example flowers when she sees some pretty flowers, red (and lipstick drink) when she sees a picture of red cats (she used to have a cat named lips lipstick). She also opens the gift card and signs cat, which is on the cover of the card. When Penny asks her to select her favorite picture in the book, she of course selects the red cats. But when Penny asks her to select a picture for Ron (co-founder Dr. Ron Cohn, her usual photographer and father figure) she selects the picture of an alligator featuring a large open mouth full of sharp teeth (alligator toys are Kokos favorites for scaring people, and herself). When Ron comes over to see Kokos pick, Koko seems a bit embarrassed and puts her hands over her face to sign unattention.

Lesson: Gorillas can be extremely sensitive.

Date Added: Mar 1, 2009
Videographer: Penny Patterson

Category:

Pets & Animals

Tags:

• Koko
• GSL
• Gorilla
• Sign
• Language
• Reads
• Animalia
• Embarrassed
• Alligator
• Crocodile

[brewerbrian420]

She is smarter than most of the creationists I run across. lol

[ZenJestr]

@allylovedance and humans are not meant to go to the moon, manipulate "metal birds" that allow them to fly across the world, go into the depths of the ocean, drink soda, drink alcohol, eat stuff like candy, split atoms to use as weapons that can negatively terraform the planet, and communicate with other members of their own species across the globe and watch a flat surface that emits light that shows them the image of a gorilla reading a book either....

[SuprMexicanLuis]

shes smarter than a mexican immagrant

[NickKingThe1st]

@AWadesTheBestVideos perhaps she thinks its manga

[CliffyEmAll]

@AWadesTheBestVideos Left to right dude...

[radajan]

Gorillas are heavily endangered animals in some of the poorest regions of Africa, where human growth and poaching are a real threat. Hopefully their future will be secured

[J5MARLON]

0:18 Wow gorillas...Koko: F those Gorrilas, Jerks.

[AWadesTheBestVideos]

you could at least teach her to read from right to left. come on now

[Floydzkrieg]

@EthanNin0 I think the main obstacle would be trying to convey the sheer amount of time involved. How do you explain the concept of hundreds of millions of years to a gorilla?

[webyourstuff1]

Has Koko ever been to visit a zoo?

[mrkoolkatt69]

I think she licked the card because she understood that you have to lick the envolope to seal it... Any one agree. Oh well koko is so cute i wish i could meet her

[felix8989]

@xXP1RaT3 Everyone has a moral responsibility to know the boundaries of their freedom, and if they knowingly overstep them they no longer deserve that freedom.