Nature & Environment

'Man stupid, fix Earth' says Koko the gorilla

By T.K. Randall
January 2, 2016

Image: Western Lowland Gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo
Credit: Kabir Bakie / CC BY-SA 2.5 (adapted) Arguably the best known member of her species in the world, Koko is a female western lowland gorilla who over the last 44 years has shown just how similar humans are to our primate cousins.

Koko is able to communicate using sign language and can understand over 2,000 words of spoken English. Trained from a young age by Francine "Penny" Patterson, Koko's communication skills are only equivalent to that of a human child but are still nonetheless highly impressive for an ape.

Now in a renewed bid to raise awareness for global warming the talkative gorilla has appeared in a new video in which she uses her signing abilities to speak out about the state of the planet."Man Koko love, Earth Koko love. But man stupid," she said. "Fix Earth! Help Earth! Protect Earth."

The footage was shown at the COP21 Climate Conference in Paris last month.

"Because of her unique ability to communicate with humans in sign language, Koko is a natural ambassador for endangered species," The Gorilla Foundation wrote in a statement.


Source: Yahoo! News

Tags: Gorilla, Koko, Climate Change