In their post-research lives, these apes, like child stars that peaked early in life, were left to live out their days in less glamorous environments. Depending on apes’ species and gender, the average lifespan for wild apes is between 30 and 50 years, and they often live even longer in captivity. Even as the research ended, though, the apes remained. “Criticisms of ape language studies wore down researchers, and projects fizzled out as the humans in charge lost interest in defending their research, being full-time ape parents, and securing ever-more elusive funding to continue the projects. It was a fad for some years, and other primates were also made to live in close relationship with human teachers, but over time this kind of experimentation became less popular. Koko was not the only ape to be used in communication studies. This article, titled “What Do Talking Apes Really Tell Us? The strange, disturbing world of Koko the gorilla and Kanzi the bonobo,” tells a much darker story of Koko’s life. Psychology, published in Slate magazine in 2014. One article about Koko stands out, a well researched and detailed article written by Dr. What is so often missed is her unnatural and lonely existence as a study subject and celebrated attraction. Apes and other primates are no better off for the sacrifices inflicted on Koko.Ī lot has been said and written about the life of Koko, much of it drivel. What has humanity done with the knowledge that apes like Koko and other primates are deeply emotional and similar to us in many ways? Have we taken that knowledge to heart, now understanding that to inflict pain and suffering on them in testing labs, zoos and circuses is immoral? Do we now vigorously protect wild primates from habitat destruction and poaching? Of course not. And human curiosity does not justify their exploitation. Both have studied animals in their native habitats without invasive techniques as opposed to the arrogant method of imprisoning sentient beings and subjecting them to manipulative lessons and tests.Īnimals do not owe it to us to explain their lives to us. We can learn to understand animals better by observing their own ways of communicating and behaving, as researchers Jane Goodall and Joyce Poole have done. We don’t need to study the behaviour of captive animals through manipulation and control to learn that they are indeed intelligent and emotionally complex. Humanity does not need to imprison an intelligent, emotionally complex being to be taught to speak our language – nor do we have a right to do so. Our moral failure in how humans treated Koko and others like her is. But, whether Koko actually learned sign language and developed human vocabulary is not the most pertinent issue. Some have said that Koko simply mimicked her human teachers. There is some doubt as to whether Koko actually communicated with humans as Dr.
Patterson has built an entire career on her relationship with Koko. Patterson became famous and their relationship has been sentimentalized over decades. Patterson trained Koko to communicate with humans using sign language. She lived an unnatural life to satisfy human curiosity.ĭr Francine “Penny” Patterson was given access to the young gorilla within Koko’s first year. Koko was born in a zoo, taken from her mother and used as a study subject from the time she was one year old. She was an exploited being, just like all captives. She had no choice in how her life unfolded.
Koko did not “give” us anything but much was “taken” from her. Numerous references are made to the “contributions” Koko gave to our understanding of the emotional lives and intelligence of animals.
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