Koko, a western lowland gorilla who became internationally famous for learning to communicate in sign language, has died at the age of 46. The Gorilla Foundation announced Koko’s death, saying she would be “deeply missed”. “Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the foundation said in a statement. Recommended Koko the Gorilla issues a warning to humanity over climate change Koko was born Hanabi-ko (Japanese for “Fireworks Child”) on July 4, 1971 at the San Francisco Zoo. When she was about 12 months old, Stanford University student Francine “Penny” Patterson started to train her to use sign language. Her handler claimed she learned to understand and use more than 1,000 different signs, although some scientists questioned the claim. Koko was among a handful of primates who could communicate using sign language; others included Washoe, a female chimpanzee in Washington state, and Chantek, a male orangutan in Atlanta. Her keepers said she understood some spoken English, too. In 1983, Koko famously asked for a cat — a wish that was eventually granted. For her birthday in 1985, researchers brought her a litter of kittens and let her choose one to keep. The primate selected a grey and white kitten, who she named “All Ball”, supposedly because the animal looked like a ball and Koko enjoyed words that rhymed. The ape nurtured All Ball like it was her offspring and even tried to nurse it at one point. Koko was reportedly upset for days after All Ball was killed by a car, Ron Cohn, a biologist with the Gorilla foundation told the Los Angeles Times in 1985. “She started whimpering — a distinct hooting sound that gorillas make when they are sad. We all started crying together,” he said. Koko went on to have many cat companions and Ms Patterson wrote a children’s book in 1990 called Koko’s Kitten, which told of the gorilla’s love of her feline companion. World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. 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In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire.<doc-sep>The gorilla is famous for being able to express her emotions through sign language, even mourning the death of celebrity friend Robin Williams Koko, likely the world’s most famous gorilla, has died. The Gorilla Foundation, the California-based non-profit the 46-year-old primate called home, announced the news on Thursday. According to a press release from The Gorilla Foundation, Koko died in her sleep on Tuesday just several days shy of her 47th birthday on July 4. Get push notifications with news, features and more. National Geographic's Editor shares a drink with Koko the go Credit: Robert Madden/National Geographic/Getty In her long life, Koko mastered over 1,000 American Sign Language signs taught to her by her caretaker, reports BBC. With these signs, Koko was able to express her feelings, showing joy over receiving a pet kitten and sadness of the death of celebrity friend Robin Williams. Through this communications and countless more, the gorilla gained fans worldwide who marveled at her ability to connect with humans and made them questions the intelligence of animals. “Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world,” The Gorilla Foundation said in its statement. Penny Patterson with Koko the Gorilla Credit: Getty According to NPR, Koko was born at the San Francisco Zoo and chosen as a young primate for a language project with psychologist Penny Patterson. This work to teach Koko how to communicate has expanded over time, with Koko being purchased by The Gorilla Foundation and moved to Woodside, California, where more time could be dedicated to her care. Beyond learning to express herself through sign language, Koko also learned how to care for a pet, play the recorder and many more impressive feats.<doc-sep>Every pet owner has said it: ‘I swear that animal understands every word!’ For Koko the gorilla, who lived in California with her devoted keeper, scientist Francine ‘Penny’ Patterson, that claim was literally true. Koko knew at least 1,000 words of American Sign Language (ASL) and appeared to respond to thousands more that she heard spoken. Koko the gorilla and her devoted keeper, scientist Francine ‘Penny’ Patterson Once, listening to Dr Patterson and another zoologist debating whether to label Koko a ‘juvenile’ or an ‘adolescent’, she interrupted in sign language: ‘No, me gorilla!’ That was 40 years ago, around the time Koko first became an international celebrity in the late Seventies, starring in TV documentaries and on magazine covers. Since then, she has inspired a best-selling children’s book, been befriended by Hollywood A-listers including Leonardo DiCaprio and Robin Williams, and changed the way science perceives communication and emotion in the great apes. But Koko, who died in her sleep on Tuesday night aged 46, never achieved her dearest ambition — to be a mother. To allay her desperate yearning for a baby, in 1985 Dr Patterson gave her a kitten, a grey Manx that a besotted Koko named All Ball From the age of nine, when asked what present she wanted most, Koko would hold her elbows and rock her arms from side to side, the universal sign for cradling an infant. She nursed dolls constantly, pretending to feed and scold them as a human child would. When visitors showed her photos of their children, Koko would take the pictures and coo over them, kissing their faces. But despite attempts over many years to pair her with a mate, Dr Patterson was unable to help the lonely creature have what she desired most. A Western Lowland Gorilla, Koko was born at San Francisco Zoo on July 4, 1971, and named Hanabi-Ko — Japanese for ‘fireworks child’ — in celebration of her birthday, America’s Independence Day. It was soon shortened to the jauntier Koko. Koko as a baby walking with Dr Patterson. The pair struck up a deep bond as Dr Patterson taught Koko how to communicate using sign language But she did not thrive in captivity and for her first year showed signs of malnourishment. Dr Patterson was then a 25-year-old psychology PhD student at Stanford University, hoping to discover whether apes could learn to communicate in sign language. Her tutor was sceptical, and set the bar for success very low: if she could teach a gorilla just three hand-signs — ‘eat’, ‘drink’ and ‘more’ — within four years, the project could be deemed a success. In Seventies California, people saw nothing odd about a student keeping a young gorilla on campus or even driving to the supermarket with Koko in the passenger seat of her Datsun. But the idea that an animal could exhibit emotions or learn human language was regarded not only as far-fetched, but as unscientific nonsense. The most Koko would ever do, scoffed behaviourists, was learn to imitate human gestures blindly, in exchange for food. Within weeks, the gorilla proved them wrong. She mastered the sign for ‘drink’, then two more. Koko in her earlier years with Dr Patterson. Koko was profiled in the Washington Post and became a cover star for National Geographic magazine Dr Patterson now believes from their earliest days together, Koko was also attempting to use gestures she had devised or learned from other zoo gorillas and that sign language might be instinctive among our ape cousins. Koko went on proving the sceptics knew nothing. Her vocabulary grew to dozens, then hundreds of words. When she didn’t know a word, she combined others to create new ones: a hair brush was a ‘scratch comb’, and a ring was a ‘finger bracelet’. Ice cream was ‘my cold cup’. Nectarine yoghurt, her favourite, was ‘orange flower sauce’. And since Koko knew she wasn’t human, she described herself as a ‘fine person gorilla’. When, at the end of the four-year experiment, San Francisco Zoo asked for their gorilla back, Dr Patterson raised $12,500 (about £50,000 today) to buy her. She approached journalists to drum up publicity: Koko was profiled in the Washington Post and became a cover star for National Geographic magazine. For the photograph, she held a camera and took her own picture in a mirror — her first selfie — for which she was paid $750 (£3,000). The possibilities of genuine communication with an animal caused ripples far beyond the scientific world. Author Michael Crichton, creator of Jurassic Park, was inspired to write a novel called Congo, about a female gorilla fluent in sign language who helps explorers discover a tribe of human-ape crossbreeds in the African rainforest. But Koko’s fame came at a price. Many, including scientists, hated the implication that humans were not as special as we claimed — that an animal could learn language and become self-aware like us. Dr Patterson’s claims became increasingly provocative: in 1978, she told supporters in a newsletter that she had asked Koko to explain ‘the meaning of life’. At first the gorilla tried to dismiss the question with a joke, by whirling on the spot. Then she became serious. ‘People be polite,’ she signed. ‘People have goodness.’ Attention from both fans and critics became so intense that Dr Patterson and Koko had to move to a secret location with a converted — and heavily reinforced — trailer in the Santa Cruz mountains near Woodside, California. They were joined by a friend from Dr Patterson’s student days, Dr Ronald Cohn. The two humans were not a conventional couple, but regarded themselves as Koko’s mother and father: ‘An interspecies family.’ In the hope of breeding a baby gorilla, Dr Patterson introduced a second animal, a pre-pubescent male called Michael. The plan was that the two apes would have time to get to know and trust each other, before mating in the future. Dr Patterson and Koko using sign language to communicate. Koko knew at least 1,000 words of American Sign Language (ASL) But the scheme backfired. Koko and Michael seemed to regard each other as sister and brother, and never attempted to breed. There was no doubt, though, that Koko liked boys. She would develop crushes on male researchers and demand to admire their bare chests. Sometimes, at her most lovelorn, she would spend hours weaving garlands of flowers for her head. Was she trying to make herself beautiful, as human brides do? Sceptics scoffed at the notion. To allay her desperate yearning for a baby, in 1985 Dr Patterson gave her a kitten, a grey Manx that a besotted Koko named All Ball. Given half a chance, the gorilla would never have let go of her adored pet. She cradled and nuzzled it constantly, tickling its fur and grooming it. The kitten was less pleased with this obsessive attention and, as cats will, began to bite and scratch to gain a little independence. Koko would tell it off, calling it ‘bad cat’, but didn’t love it any less. Dr Patterson began limiting the time that gorilla and kitten spent together: All Ball came for ‘visits’. Koko soon learned that word, and pleaded for visits all the time. Her devotion became national news, with another National Geographic cover, this time of a 300lb maternal gorilla cradling a bundle of feline fluff. But when All Ball was six months old, the little cat was run over and killed by a car near the trailer. Penny and Ron broke the news to Koko together. She reacted with horror, keening in a drawn-out moan that some gorilla researchers believe is the animal’s equivalent of sobbing. Over and over, she signed the words ‘sad’, ‘bad’ and ‘frown’. Unable to believe All Ball was gone, she begged to see it: ‘Cat gorilla have visit. Koko love. Do visit do.’ To raise funds, and draw attention to the plight of gorillas in the wild, Dr Patterson wrote a children’s book called Koko’s Kitten. It became a best-seller and helped pay for Koko’s food and human helpers for the rest of her life.<doc-sep>
EMBED >More News Videos Red Hot Chili Peppers' bassist Flea visited Koko the gorilla and let her play with his instrument. EMBED >More News Videos It's not just humans mourning the loss of Robin Williams, but also a gorilla named Koko who shared a special bond with the actor. EMBED >More News Videos The Gorilla Foundation says Koko's ability to use sign language to communicate with humans demonstrated the species' emotional capacity and made a huge impact. Gorilla Foundation @kokotweets says Koko's companion Ndume is in a solemn state and signed "sad" now that Koko is gone. #Abc7now @abc7newsbayarea — Carlos Saucedo (@Carlos_Saucedo) June 21, 2018 WOODSIDE, Calif. (KGO) -- The world is remembering Koko, the famous gorilla who lived in the Bay Area. She died in her sleep Tuesday at the age of 46 at her home in the Santa Cruz Mountains.The Gorilla Foundation says her ability to use sign language to communicate with humans demonstrated the species' emotional capacity and made a huge impact. "People's lives were changed completely after meeting her, they looked in her eyes and it was almost like another universe," said Joy Chesbrough with the foundation.Koko brought joy to many people, including celebrities like Flea, the bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. "Coco, you're a very curious gorilla," Flea once said.Robin Williams also had a big impact on Koko.Koko's handlers said at that time, she hadn't smiled in six months since her lifelong partner passed away. Williams made her smile.The two joked and wrestled, even got into a tickling fight.The foundation said Koko expressed sadness after her handlers explained Williams had died in 2014.The western lowland gorilla was born on July 4, 1971 at the San Francisco Zoo.In 1972, Dr. Penny Patterson started teaching Koko sign language and eventually established The Gorilla Foundation and moved to the Santa Cruz Mountains. "They developed a bond and couldn't let go. They were like mother and daughter," said Gary Stanley, chief operating officer at the Gorilla Foundation.With Penny's help, Koko learned to use over 1,000 signs and seemed to understand approximately 2,000 spoken English words.The foundation says that Penny is heartbroken over the loss. Even Koko's gorilla companion at the compounded, Ndume, is in a sad state, signing "sad." The Gorilla Foundation released a statement overnight, saying, "Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy. She was beloved and will be deeply missed. "The foundatin's headquarters in Redwood City were busy Thursday answering calls from around the world. Their website Koko.org even crashed due to the heavy traffic. They are encouraging people to go to their online page and share stories of how Koko impacted them.