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Dear Friend of Koko,
Today is World Gorilla Day. This annual occasion always makes me reflect more deeply about Koko and her species. Koko left us in 2018, but her legacy of conservation through communication — and empathy — will live on for future generations.
This past year has been hard on humans and animals alike as we’ve struggled together with pandemics, climate change, war, hunger, mass extinction, and many more disruptions.
So today, I want to tell you about an exciting project and vision at The Gorilla Foundation which is finally taking flight — the Koko App — which has been designed to bring Koko to an even wider global audience, for the benefit of both her species and ours.
Please watch the following video to get a sense of how the Koko App will work, how it will help gorillas, people and Nature, and how you can help make it happen:
The Koko App will share fifty years of combined knowledge and learning about gorillas, and bring our human community closer to animals. It will include compelling multimedia tools to:
1) Learn how to sign with Koko and Penny
Look up signs by name or description and we'll demonstrate them.
2) Explore the mind of a gorilla
Learn about Koko's and Michael's most significant people, places, things, movies, experiences, hobbies, emotions and signs. Or about Ndume's travels from a Zoo to a Sanctuary and back.
3) Help us translate the Koko Video Research Archive
You can help us translate interspecies communication videos that have never been seen before by the general public. Help us validate the science and create more content for everyone using the Koko App.
4) Decode Zoo gorilla natural gestures to improve care
Gorillas (and other great apes) are born to gesture.
Studies have revealed that they may use over 100 natural (untaught) gestures in both captive and free-living settings. The Koko App can help us collect and analyze videos of gorillas gesturing and collectively decode their meaning.
5) Save gorillas from extinction — be a Voice for Nature!
Interspecies communication helps us develop a closer connection to other species, by understanding their thoughts and feelings without guesswork. It is a vital pathway to appreciating and protecting all of our vanishing species. The Koko App will use interspecies communication to help gorillas as an important step forward!
And kids can lead the way, by joining our Kids4Koko network through the Koko App.
Your financial support for the new Koko App — which goes into development in late 2021 — will make it possible for Koko to continue to have a wide impact on gorilla conservation and care and, more generally, preservation of the natural world.
I only wish Koko could be with us on this (and every) World Gorilla Day, but I know she is here in spirit, and appreciates how hard we're working to make a difference for her species and our shared Natural World.
Please donate today.
Thank you for your ongoing support to enable our profound dialogue with the great apes to expand.
Wishing you Koko-Love!
Penny Patterson, Ph.D.
President & Director of Research
The Gorilla Foundation / Koko.org
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