The #1 source for news about monkeys and apes

[Carrie McLaren <carrie AT stayfreemagazine.org>]

Los Angeles Times
March 9, 2002
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/printedition/calendar/la-000017336mar09.story

A&E's gorilla special gets an opposable thumbs up from Koko, the 
first of her kind to learn sign language.

BYLINE: VALERIE FELDNER, SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

BODY:
"They're our bridge to the past. Without the great apes where are we? 
We're fragments floating in the universe without a past, without a 
future," says Dr. George Schaller in the A&E special "Gorillas: 
Primal Contact" airing Sunday night at 8. The show, narrated by 
Martin Sheen and produced by Greystone Communications in association 
with the Bronx-based Wildlife Conservation Society, is itself a 
rarity since it's about both captive and wild gorillas and man's 
fascination with them.

WCS' Congo Gorilla Forest, a $43-million exhibit in the heart of New 
York's Bronx Zoo that took 10 years and 200 people to build, is the 
hub of this special. Commentary from the society's gorilla experts, 
including Schaller, the first to study wild gorillas in 1959, and Amy 
Vedder and Bill Weber (authors of the recently published book "In the 
Kingdom of Gorilla"), offer insights into the gorilla mind as well as 
anecdotes about living and working closely with them.

To get a different perspective on this special, we consulted another 
kind of expert--a 280-pound lowland gorilla named Koko. Opposable 
thumbs up or thumbs down? Koko, whose full name is Hanabi-Ko 
(Fireworks-Child in Japanese), drew widespread attention more than 20 
years ago, as the first gorilla in the world to learn American Sign 
Language (Ameslan), though not the first or only primate to do so. 
She's got her own Web site. She's a city girl--born on July 4, 1971, 
in the San Francisco Zoo--who knows more than 1,000 gestural words 
and uses signs to lie, insult and rhyme. Her first school days at the 
zoo and then Stanford University are chronicled in Francine 
Patterson's book "The Education of Koko" (1981).

With the permission of the Gorilla Foundation based in Woodside, 
Calif., which is home to Koko and its director Patterson, Koko was 
sent a copy of the A&E special for her take on it. At times, Ameslan 
can be limiting for Koko. For instance, there isn't a sign for "mind 
blowing," though this never stops her--she makes up her own signs. 
Patterson puts Koko's IQ between 70 and 95 on the human scale and 
says she comprehends 2,000 words of spoken English.

Gorilla Watches  Wildlife Documentaries

Koko is not shy about her preferences in entertainment. Her favorite 
movie is "Free Willy," though this can change from week to week. Like 
Steve Irwin, "The Crocodile Hunter," she is fixated on crocodiles and 
alligators. However, a local travelogue that airs on KCET called 
"California Gold" is her bliss. Patterson and her staff are mystified 
by Koko's obsession with the show because it's so tame. "She's just 
fascinated by the host, Huell Howser. We don't know what it is about 
him or that show, but she gets very annoyed if anyone blocks her 
view." In one episode of "California Gold," Patterson and staff 
thought Koko might be reacting to shots of a geyser, but it was 
Howser who captivated her, perhaps not that surprising because she 
prefers the company of men to women.

We also asked (via Patterson signing in Ameslan) Koko some lifestyle 
questions. Keep in mind, as Patterson wrote in her book, "There are 
marked contrasts between a way a statement is made in English and the 
way it is made in sign language ... the written translation of 
statements made in sign language has a stilted telegraphic quality."
Question: What do you like to do in your free time?

Koko: Drink, fine, fine, free time, free, have time free, time, 
chocolate mouth, from lipstick have--swallow, people, polite people 
have, glasses take off. (Patterson breaks it down this way: 'Have 
time to walk around freely, have more chocolate,' and 'take glasses 
off people to wear herself.' She often does this when she gets a 
chance and thinks she is really cool in glasses.)

Q: Have you met gorillas in the wild, and what do you think of them?

A: Fine gorillas.

TV is an integral part of her routine after lunch. As much as she 
enjoys programs and movies, she thinks nothing of hitting the off 
switch or fast forwarding through the parts she finds annoying or 
boring. And Patterson explains, "Like a child, we shield her from 
certain content on TV. In fact, in general we only allow her to watch 
PBS."

However, during the week of Sept. 11, live coverage was so pervasive 
that Koko accidentally saw the explosions of the twin towers and 
signed "Shame." Her comprehension that the explosion was bad has 
convinced Patterson even more so that Koko is empathetic. As Vedder, 
who has lived intimately with wild gorillas, points out, "They're 
intellectually curious; they're not coming up with mathematics and 
philosophy [but] the more we look at it, the line [that separates us] 
is not so clear as we thought."
Koko's screening of the A&E special is one of the few exceptions to 
the PBS viewing rule. Patterson says, "We got the videotape and 
started to show it to Koko, but her attention was elsewhere." Koko 
has personally met many of the world's greatest primatologists, such 
as Schaller and Dian Fossey, who spent 18 years studying Rwanda's 
mountain gorillas before she was murdered in 1985. Schaller and 
Fossey are featured in the special that follows the fate of a 
wild-born giant silverback gorilla named Timmy. Until recently, Timmy 
lived in cement zoo enclosures at the Bronx Zoo before he and his 
gorilla troop moved into the 6.5 acres Congo Gorilla Forest. The 
troop's first steps from concrete to the grassy exhibit are 
touchingly documented by the program.
American Carl Akley first caught wild mountain gorillas on celluloid. 
It was this footage that fueled Hollywood to create such fearsome 
fantasies as "King Kong." This special offers rare glimpses of 
Akley's footage and interviews with make-up artist Rick Baker, who 
made the gorillas for "Mighty Joe Young," "Gorillas in the Mist" and 
"King Kong" (1976). A long segment shows footage of Fossey working 
with gorillas, as well as the making of difficult sequences of 
"Gorillas in the Mist"-- Baker's biggest challenge as real gorillas 
were intercut with fake ones.

Since many of the segments show the grisly destruction of gorillas in 
the bush, first in Akley's taxidermy for the American Museum of 
Natural History in the early 1900s, and the current slaughter linked 
to the bush meat trade, only certain segments of the special were 
approved by Patterson for Koko's review.

For Koko, TV watching is an interactive sport, including touching the 
screen. Like many of us she snacks while watching (usually greenery 
or fruit). During the shots where Timmy's troop is first released and 
tumbles across the grass, Koko comments, "Good. Koko love hurry 
there," she says pointing at the screen.

Not Always Easy to Understand Koko

During a long segment, about midway through the documentary where 
Vedder, Weber and other WSC officials talk about the exhibit and 
gorilla conservation, Koko signs, " Koko love, pick-fence." 
"Pick-fence" is a term Koko uses to convey bad "gossip," or literally 
a fence. Despite Patterson's thousands of hours working with Koko, 
she wasn't sure whether Koko was referring to the structure of the 
zoo exhibit or the scientists.
When actress Sigourney Weaver appears on screen portraying a 
terror-stricken Fossey in "Gorillas in the Mist" facing down a 
charging gorilla, Koko signs to the on-screen Fossey, "Good, kiss," 
and kisses her finger and touches the TV screen. Given the fact that 
the show intercuts shots of Fossey and Weaver, it wasn't surprising 
that Koko would take the actress for the real thing. After all, it 
had been 24 years since she had last seen Fossey in the flesh. Since 
then Koko has seen numerous nature programs about wild gorillas. She 
seems to enjoy them, particularly scenes where they are feeding 
DeeAnn Draper, Patterson's assistant and gorilla caregiver.

At the end of the Fossey segment, Koko remarked, "Show movie, 
chocolate time," and was quite ready to move on to another story or a 
game of chase. When asked about her overall impression of the show, 
Koko simply signed: "Good."

"Gorillas: Primal Contact" airs Sunday night at 8 on A&E. The network 
has rated it TV-PG (may be unsuitable for young children).


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