Koko: The Gorilla Who Talks to People

Hidden in the hills of Northern California

a few miles south of San Francisco, lies Woodside.

One of the wealthiest towns in America.

It is home to a host of celebrities.

Including a western lowland gorilla called Koko...

..whose life challenges everything we think makes us unique.

Over 40 years ago, Penny Patterson set out to discover

if humans and gorillas could ever communicate.

Everyone, when they're a child, has that Dr Doolittle moment

where they think, you know, "If only we could talk to animals."

And here was a chance.

What began as a PhD to teach sign language to Koko

turned into a lifelong relationship.

It seemed like Penny was in love with Koko

in the way in which a mother might be in love with a daughter.

News about Koko made headlines across the world.

'Koko was a particularly intelligent gorilla...'

'Koko is the subject of the longest ongoing ape language...'

But throughout their time together, Penny has had to fight to keep Koko.

The reality that it really would end just didn't enter our minds.

Now, nearly half a century after the project began,

the line between humans and apes is being redrawn.

A court in Argentina has ruled that an orang-utan can be granted

some of the legal rights enjoyed by humans.

What entitles humans to rights that other species

and animals aren't entitled to?

With thousands of hours of footage collected over 44 years,

does Project Koko finally prove that animals can communicate with humans?

And even share their deep thoughts and feelings with us?

Maybe these animals are thinking.

There's a lot more going on in their heads than maybe we thought.

Or are there some things that will always separate us

from our closest relatives?

How human can a gorilla be?

What can her brain do like a human can do?

HEAVY RUMBLE OF KOKO BREATHING

Now that you have your things with you,

how are your emotions right now?

Koko has emotions!

Koko spends almost every day with Penny

and Ron Cohn, who has filmed ever since Project Koko began.

Five, six, seven... Good!

Penny claims that Koko can use over 1,000 words

of American Sign Language

and videos of her online regularly get millions of hits.

'Coco understands spoken English

'and uses of 1,000 signs to share her feelings and thoughts.'

'A giant gorilla with a tiny, tiny, tiny helpless kitten.'

It's rare for anyone other than Penny

and Ron to get close to Koko herself.

But now the BBC has been given unprecedented access

to film Koko for a month...

..and open up the archive of her life to see for ourselves how much

Koko can really communicate

and what daily life is like for the world's most famous gorilla.

Drinks and things. Yeah, yeah.

Penny, what are you planning to do?

Oh, Koko's birthday. Yeah.

This is a big deal. Koko was born on the fourth of July.

So, we're just lining up presents and...

Um, so, did you get the ones in here?

Coco will soon turn 44.

And this is a T-shirt of love? Well, yeah...

'Although gorillas in the wild rarely reach this age,'

captive females can live into their 50s.

But unlike other gorillas,

Koko's birthdays are celebrated with cakes, parties and presents.

It's a life no-one could have predicted when it all began.

Blow it out. Good girl!

KITTEN MEWS

Koko was born to her mother Jacqueline in 1971

in San Francisco Zoo.

'She's accepted the child and she's proceeding to raise it.'

The gorilla population is declining and I think we are, sort of,

becoming a Noah's Ark.

When Koko was born, Penny and Ron were both students nearby

at Stanford University.

'I was a graduate student...'

..and we met at one of Penny's friend's parties, or something.

And I got her phone number.

She was definitely the most beautiful woman I'd ever seen.

I'm sure you won't put that in! But she was.

Penny was a 24-year-old psychology student at Stanford,

when the field of animal communication

was going through a revolution.

Do this, Viki. HE BLOWS RASPBERRY

CHIMPANZEE BLOWS RASPBERRY

Another sound resembles the letter K.

Viki, sit up, girl. Come on.

Earlier attempts had tried to teach spoken language, for instance.

They don't have... They can't generate the sounds.

They don't have control of the lips and tongue the way we do.

And somebody had the wit to teach sign language, you know,

to his chimp, Washoe.

In the '60s, Washoe was raised like a child by husband and wife

Allen and Beatrix Gardner.

They claimed she could use 350 signs to communicate.

I had attended a lecture by the Gardners at Stanford

and was really interested in that research.

I just felt, this is it, this is what I need to do.

For her PhD, Penny had been visiting San Francisco Zoo

searching for an ape she could teach to sign.

We met with the director and asked if we could work with the gorillas.

We went to see the family - the zoo family - and Koko was in Mom's arms

and she had a sibling who was kind of running around.

Penny asked to work with Koko,

but because gorillas in the wild cling to their mothers

for the first few months of life,

the zoo didn't think it would be fair

to take Koko away from her family.

But when she was just six months old, they were left with no choice.

She was rescued one day from death

and taken to the medical centre for treatment.

She had been strapped down so that they could keep an IV in place

and, basically, save her life.

She contracted shigella, which is a serious intestinal parasite.

The brother to Koko died from it.

Koko was in intensive care and she got through it.

The zoo couldn't return Koko to her mother,

as they feared the group would treat her as an outsider.

So, she was hand-reared for the next six months in the zoo's nursery.

When I came back to the zoo, the keeper recognised me

and said, "Do you want to see Koko?"

And I said, "Of course I do."

And he said, "She's in the children's zoo"

and he took me to see her.

That day, that first day, that we actually got to see her,

she was kind of feisty.

She ran around and gave me a nip on the ankle.

I think, within a few days, Penny started working with Koko

in the nursery at the zoo.

As soon as Penny started to teach sign language to Koko,

Ron began to film, to document their progress.

I decided that it would be good to focus on three signs.

"Eat", "drink" and "more".

Those would come up a lot during keeping Koko going during the day.

Penny began by moulding Koko's hands into different signs,

hoping she would start to use them independently.

It happened pretty fast.

I guess, I was thinking it would take a lot longer, or something.

Early on, Koko picked up around one new sign each month.

Penny made little Koko work.

But Koko was pretty smart.

And soon Penny had noted Koko combining signs to ask for things.

It was like there really was something miraculous happening.

Not quite like stepping on the moon for the first time,

but it was that sort of feeling

that some sort of bridge had been crossed.

Someone really was communicating with an animal

and that animal was communicating back.

I think Koko loved it.

A person that was there with her for so many hours at a time.

So, it was a strong bond to begin with

and, certainly, Koko was very interested in learning language,

or anything at that time.

I think spending their time together with Koko being a baby,

that they bonded the way a mother and a child would bond.

You just don't expect a gorilla to be that way.

You know, everybody thinks King Kong -

big, stupid, dumb-witted

and big and blustery -

and she was small and sweet and creative.

So, it was like raising a kid.

She still very much needed to be on the mom at that age.

KOKO GRUNTS

More than 40 years on, Koko still lives in the same mobile home

she grew up in at the zoo.

But as she's grown to nearly 300 pounds,

the walls have had to be reinforced and a large outside area added.

So, that's how we're going to handle lunch again today...

Whereas wild gorillas will spend hours each day foraging and feeding,

..and then after three it's too late, so then we'll do greens...

Koko's meals are cooked by a team of carers

funded through public donations.

They also give her vitamins, put on her favourite DVDs...

..and even wrap her birthday presents.

The idea of being able to communicate in a shared language

with someone who is not a human -

you're drawn in by that big idea.

And then, when you meet them, it becomes apparent to you

that there is someone inside there that is unique.

I don't think you can walk away when you realise that.

Penny now lives just a few miles from Koko,

so she can spend time with her almost every day.

At the beginning, before I started,

I outlined the project and proposed it to the zoo

and they said, "You're not going to leave after, like, three weeks

"like everybody else, are you?"

And I said, "Oh, no. I'll be here at least four years."

OK.

While Penny drives in and Ron lives on site,

it's unusual for anyone other than the two of them

to go into Koko's enclosure.

But since the crew had started filming,

Koko had been keen to meet them.

OK, you want Johnny to come in?

OK, you're going to be...

..good.

OK.

If you're an animal person, it's like, "Of course!"