Blue Streak Science Podcast

On This Week’s Show A**hole of the Month A Farewell to Koko Where’s all the Matter? Three places struggling to control HIV and AIDS Science News with Sophie McManus and JD Goodwin A Farewell to Koko Sophie McManus Koko, the famous ‘talking gorilla’, has died in California aged 46. Koko was born in 1971 in San Francisco zoo and when she became ill she needed hand-rearing. The student for the job was Penny Patterson, who also taught her some American sign language. In a couple of years Koko learned 80 signs, before she was moved to Stanford University. It is claimed she could understand 2000 English words and knew 1000 different signs. Apart from that, Penny Patterson described evidence for a sense of humour and a charming and creative sense of word play - she referred to a zebra as a ‘white tiger,’ a Pinocchio doll as an ‘elephant baby,’ and a mask as an ‘eye hat’. Koko famously loved cats - her favourite kitten was called All Ball, and the way she handled her kittens is obviously full of care. She tickled