Dear Friend,Robin Williams met Koko in 2001, shortly after Koko lost her best gorilla friend, Michael. She hadn’t smiled since that day. But she laughed profusely on this day, and so did Robin. Watch the video (which has already received over 23M views) and then let’s discuss:
As endangered species day was honored on May 17, this is a good time to reflect on what we’ve learned from Koko about endangered species. When I first started working with Koko in 1972, I wasn’t aware of the seriousness of the crisis facing her species. Western Lowland Gorillas (the subspecies to which Koko, Michael, Ndume, and all zoo gorillas belong) are considered critically endangered and thousands of these gorillas are killed by humans each year via the illegal bushmeat trade and habitat loss, in certain areas of Africa. As I learned more about this crisis, I decided to work harder to publicize our work, and invite celebrities such as Robin Williams to meet Koko so that the true nature of gorillas could become common knowledge.
Fortunately this approach (which we affectionately call “conservation through communication”) is becoming even more effective these days, as we distribute our new Koko Signs app in Africa, where almost everyone now has a cell phone and can watch and appreciate these emotional videos of gorillas Koko, Michael and Ndume.
It seems likely from our preliminary outreach that the more people in gorilla habitat areas who watch “Koko” videos, the more difficult it will be for them to justify gorilla hunting and habitat destruction.
I hope you enjoy this content, but also that you’ll keep in mind that each video contains important “data” that we can use to enrich our understanding of interspecies communication, both it’s scientific implications and its conservation implications for saving the species and optimizing their care in captivity — until all gorillas can be free-living and safe!
With sincere Koko-Love,
Dr. Penny Patterson
President, CEO and Founder
The Gorilla Foundation / Koko.org
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