Dear Project Koko Supporter,

In the above video, recorded in 1977, a 4-year-old Michael practices signing with Ann Southcombe, his primary caregiver at The Gorilla Foundation. Michael, alongside Koko, learned American Sign Language (ASL) from me and a team of caregivers, some of whom were native signers.

Michael came to live with Koko when he was 3 and Koko was 5, and acquired over 500 signs by the time he was an adult. Koko eventually acquired over 1000 signs, but Michael was just as articulate as Koko with the signs he used. He demonstrated that all gorillas are adept at gestural language. Gorillas communicate with each other using a combination of over 100 unique gestures, vocalizations, facial expressions and body positions or postures.

Michael became an amazing silverback (adult male) gorilla, and excelled at both sharing stories and painting. He also liked music, which included listening to opera singer Luciano Pavarotti.

Michael’s paintings can be viewed, and limited edition prints purchased, at The Gorilla Foundation’s online store (KokoMart), and his stories can be found on YouTube.

The most poignant story Michael ever told us was about the memory of his mother being killed by poachers in Africa. It was recorded on video and has the power to convert poachers to protectors.

We were so fortunate to have been able to provide a family to Michael, and were both surprised and saddened when he passed away at the age of 27, from cardiomyopathy (a stress-related disease that seems to afflict about 70% of male gorillas in captivity).

You can learn to understand Koko and Michael’s ASL signs (plus some of their natural gestures) via our Koko Signs app (see link below).

There’s nothing quite like interspecies communication to establish interspecies empathy — and there’s nothing like interspecies empathy to establish true conservation!

Conservation through Communication

The Gorilla Foundation is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
Our Federal Tax ID is: 942-38-6151