Did you know there's a talking gorilla? | #TalkingGorilla | BBC

you just don't expect a gorilla to be that way you know everybody thinks Q calm stupid dog ratted and big and blustery and she was small and sweet and creative over 40 years ago penny Patterson set out to discover of humans and gorillas could ever communicate I was a student at Stanford a friend of mine said this woman is doing this amazing thing teaching sign language to a gorilla and I was like you have got to be kidding early on Koko picked up around one new sign each month and soon penny had noted Koko combining signs to ask for things what began as a PhD to teach sign language - Koko turned into a lifelong relationship it seemed like penny was in love with Koko and the way in which a mother might be in love with the daughter except your daughter has the strength of ten men news about Koko made headlines across the world Koko who's a particularly intelligent who is the subject of the longest ongoing ape language study to date but while Penny's findings were seen as a major breakthrough by the media there were some scientists who were less convinced Penny Patterson is a overzealous mother who was very proud of her surrogate children and tens very much to projects meanings are to those children that it may not be apparent to another day there was a yawning gap between what you might believe and what you could prove these animals are doing penny believes it I think the public probably believes it her abilities to simply recognize herself in a mirror she is able to point to that image and say that's me which indicates consciousness for itself she has this self consciousness like a person does now nearly half a century after the project began the line between humans and apes is be a course in Argentina has ruled that an orangutan can be granted some of the legal rights enjoyed by humans what in tables humans to rates that other species and animals aren't entitled to with thousands of hours of footage collected over forty four years does Project Coco finally prove that animals can communicate with humans and even share their deep thoughts and feelings with us maybe these animals are thinking there's a lot more going on in their heads and maybe we thought or are there some things that will always separate us from our closest relatives how human can a gorilla be what can her brain do like a human can do

Channel: BBC Earth

Views: 34,375,758

Keywords: BBC, BBC Worldwide, Nature, Natural History, Animals, Wildlife, Wild, BBC One, Koko, Gorilla, Talk, Talking, Speak, Communication, Communicate, Speaking, #TalkingGorilla, King Kong, Intelligent, Smart, Penny Patterson, Human, Sign Language, Signing, Science, Scientists, Media, Ape, Project Kogo, Can Animals, Chat, Species, The Gorilla Who Talks To People

Id: s1HcU7taTbo

Length: 2min 56sec (176 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 13 2016