Four Turkeys

 

Koko the Gorilla was born in the San Diego Zoo in 1971. Her trainer, Penny Patterson, taught her American Sign Language. At age four, she had a vocabulary of 170 words. Koko lived most of her life in Woodside, California, at The Gorilla Foundation's preserve in the Santa Cruz Mountains. She was a media darling, in spite of (or perhaps because of) a debate in scientific circles over whether she was actually “speaking,” or whether Dr. Patterson and others had simply trained a gorilla to perform like any circus animal. A variety of celebrities came to visit Koko at the preserve, including William Shatner, Leonardo DiCaprio, Betty White, Robin Williams and Sting. Perhaps Koko’s favorite visitor was Fred Rogers, who she seemed to recognize from his PBS show. She told him she loved him. Then, as she’d seen him do countless times on TV, Koko removed Mr. Rogers’ shoes. Koko died in her sleep in 2018. She was forty-six.