I decided to talk to you about Koko, a female gorilla that's considered as one of the most intelligent animals on earth. Indeed, her owner, Francine Patterson, has been teaching her sign language since Koko was 1 year old (she is now 41), and has been able to teach her more than 1000 signs so far, that she understands and reproduces. In this way, Francine and Koko established a real form of communication. For instance, Koko can say whenever she wants to leave her cage, or if she wants to eat something in particular, that kind of stuff.
One christmas, Koko asked her owner for a kitten. Francine tried giving her a stuffed cat, but as she wasn't satisfied and kept signing "sad", she made her choose a real kitten. Koko named it All Ball, and she took care of it as if it was her baby, she was very loving. But a few weeks later, Francine found out the cat had been hit and killed by a car. When she signed Koko that her cat was dead, Koko wouldn't stop signing "sad" or "cry", and she made sounds very similar to human's weeping. She actually associated a word with a feeling, even though scientists agreed that only humans could have emotions. Koko then got a new kitten, that she called Lipstick.
A lot of people won't agree with that, but I know that animals can have true feelings, if you have a dog you know what I mean, you can read obvious emotions in its eyes, and Koko's story proves that theory as well. Just because they can't express it with words doesn't mean they don't feel anything.
Clink on the link below if you want to learn more about Koko or about her specie's conservation :
The Gorilla Foundation
Love.
No comments:
Post a Comment