Tuesday, May 19, 2009

picture of the day

from wikipedia: Koko (born July 4, 1971, in San Francisco, California) is a lowland gorilla who, according to Francine 'Penny' Patterson, is able to understand more than 1,000 signs based on American Sign Language,[1] and understand approximately 2,000 words of spoken English.[2]

Koko is one of the few non-humans known to keep pets of a different species. She has cared for several cats over the years and Koko's relationship with All Ball was featured in the 1987 book Koko's Kitten, which was written by Patterson.

"Koko: A Talking Gorilla" is a 1978 documentary directed by Barbet Schroeder that focuses on Dr. Francine 'Penny' Patterson and her work with Koko, the gorilla Patterson claims to have taught to communicate with humans using symbols taken from American Sign Language.

i found the documentary on youtube. below is part 1/9 (it's in english with italian subtitles):


2 comments:

  1. I love how Penny was just driving along in her beater, sight-seeing with two gorillas!

    ReplyDelete
  2. are you referring to something in the video?? i watched alot of it, skipping around... so fascinating! which erin is this?

    ReplyDelete