Pfranz - It makes me want to send Koko an e-mail asking "What good does she want to come from her life?"
Well, she wanted - and got - a pet kitten. Petted it and looked after it quite well, apparently. Unfortunately it got run over a few months later. When the keepers told her that the kitten was dead she showed that she understood death in the abstract, although I can't remember now exactly what she said. But it rocked the researchers back on their heels, because it was believed that only humans understand birth and death as concepts. Wrong.
The big thing (in relation to this thread) is that she compounds signs she knows to create new words when she wants them. She saw someone with an ice lolly once and was given a piece. She liked it, and asked for one. She didn't have the sign, so she combined "cold" and "stick".
Dunno if she is bright for a gorilla, but she doesn't do so badly, does she?
- Pfranz
