Koko: A Talking Gorilla (1978) - full transcript
A documentary that follows Dr. Penny Patterson's current scientific study of Koko, a gorilla who communicates through American Sign Language.
Koko is a gorilla.
Ally is a chimpanzee.
This is Washoe.
She has already earned a place
in the history of modern science.
She was ten months old in 1966
when psychologists
Allen and Beatrix Gardner
began an experiment with her
that rocked the scientific world.
Washoe is now 12.
She has a vocabulary
of about 200 words.
She lives with other chimpanzees
on an island
at the Institute for Primate Studies
in Oklahoma.
Roger Fouts was formerly
the Gardners'assistant.
He was involved from the start
on experiments with chimpanzees
using sign language for the deaf.
No one had ever attempted
such experiments with gorillas.
Gorillas were thought to be
too difficult to handle,
much more dangerous
and less intelligent than chimpanzees.
The first birth here was in 1971.
It was Koko,
whose mother is shown here.
Koko is available to us
only because these gorillas
were taken from their mothers,
from their native jungle,
their parents
perhaps slaughtered.
Today, the only place
where a gorilla is truly safe
is within the concrete walls
of a zoo.
In Africa, they're driven
out of the equatorial forests
by farmers
and lumber companies,
as well as poachers.
Only a few thousand
mountain gorillas are left.
Their only enemy is man.
Even though Koko was born
in the San Francisco Zoo,
she's still an animal
of the primeval forest, an exile.
Koko lives in a suburb
south of San Francisco.
This is what's called
her cultural environment.
The names of these places -
Redwood City, Palo Alto -
serve as reminders
that less than 100 years ago,
this area was covered
by a huge forest.
On the campus
of Stanford University,
Penny Patterson, 28,
a graduate student in psychology,
is teaching Koko sign language.
Koko lives
in a specially modified trailer.
Penny lives
with her boyfriend off campus.
She has no children.
She arrives every morning
before Koko wakes up
and returns every night
when Koko goes to sleep.
The experiment began
five years ago.
Penny hasn't had
a single day of vacation since.
Penny's based her work
on the Gardners' work with Washoe,
but with one important difference.
Tests for intelligence and vocabulary
are set up in three different ways.
With signs, with words,
and with both at the same time.
The alligator is bottom left.
It's the third from the left.
Koko scores slightly lower
than a child of the same age.
Gorillas in the wild
are generally vegetarians.
Koko eats hamburgers and takes
vitamins like any American child.
Twice a month,
Koko's life is recorded on videotape.
Twice a week,
a tape recorder is used instead.
Every word Koko uses
each day is checked off.
Sometimes Koko
makes up sentences,
and these too are taken down
and analyzed by a computer
that extracts
their grammatical structure.
Koko doesn't know what to make
of her new yellow sweater.
She wants her old red one.
It was cold that day.
Gorillas are sensitive to cold
and easily catch pneumonia.
At four,
Koko loses her first tooth.
The event was filmed in Super 8.
This game was thought
to have been invented by Koko.
In fact, it's a game played
by young gorillas in the jungle.
This time, it's Koko's turn
to ask Penny something.
How far can Koko progress?
Koko's health
is carefully monitored.
Her urine and blood
are analyzed regularly.
Since early childhood,
Koko has been in daily contact
with deaf-mutes.
Gorillas reach puberty at six
and are fully adult at nine.
Their average life span
is 50 years.
When this film was shot,
Koko was almost six.
She experienced her first
sexual stirrings during the filming.
There's a newcomer
in Koko's life.
Michael, a young gorilla of four.
He already knows a dozen words.
At first Koko was afraid
of Michael.
Then she became jealous,
and then curious.
Now she loves him.
They'll have to wait
at least three years
untiI Michael reaches puberty,
which comes later for males,
to have children.
Watch this.
Koko wants to see Michael.
A lesson in progress.
Koko works
two or three hours a day.
Then she gets tired.
Gorillas in the wild
live in strict hierarchical groupings.
Each gorilla must obey its superior
in the group structure.
Penny, with a place
in that hierarchy,
must enforce that relationship
or risk danger.
All education implies dominance.
How could Penny avoid
transmitting her own values?
Koko may become the first
white American Protestant gorilla.
This film was shot
practically in secret.
Koko was still the property
of the San Francisco Zoo.
The zoo was threatening to send
the police to recover Koko.
Penny adamantly refused
to give her up.
She was ready
to run away with Koko,
or even live with her
in the zoo compound.
In the end,
the Gorilla Foundation,
which Penny created,
bought Koko.
Then we went to see
the zoo director.
Is this Koko's rightful place?
Would you have called the police
to get Koko back?
Koko doesn't have a voice.
Primates' vocal chords only allow them
to emit a handful of cries.
Koko is learning
to use a new tool,
a computer
that speaks out loud for her.
Every 10 minutes,
for several hours a day,
the new machine
invites her to its keyboard.
If someone killed Koko,
would it be murder?
No. To the law, killing an animal
is a mere misdemeanor.
Would a child who behaved
like Koko be put in an institution?
But why must man
be our only standard?
Is the question whether Koko,
because she can speak,
deserves some special status
accorded by man?
Or is it a question
of an animal's right to live
according to the rules
of its own species?
It seems what's been called
intelligence no longer designates
only that intelligence
in full awareness of itself,
but also that intelligence that lives
spontaneously, unselfconsciously.
In fact, Koko raises
all the important questions about man.
One can't decide a priori
that only human beings are persons.
One could prove
that this gorilla is a person.
In our society, a person has
certain rights, limited as they may be.
To grant these rights to primates
is to open the door for the animal world.
Since the dawn
of Western civilization,
we've lived with the idea
of man created in the image of God,
intrinsically different
from animals and nature.
In the wake
of Darwin's theory of evolution,
language was the last remaining
bulwark for this worldview.
Ally is a chimpanzee.
This is Washoe.
She has already earned a place
in the history of modern science.
She was ten months old in 1966
when psychologists
Allen and Beatrix Gardner
began an experiment with her
that rocked the scientific world.
Washoe is now 12.
She has a vocabulary
of about 200 words.
She lives with other chimpanzees
on an island
at the Institute for Primate Studies
in Oklahoma.
Roger Fouts was formerly
the Gardners'assistant.
He was involved from the start
on experiments with chimpanzees
using sign language for the deaf.
No one had ever attempted
such experiments with gorillas.
Gorillas were thought to be
too difficult to handle,
much more dangerous
and less intelligent than chimpanzees.
The first birth here was in 1971.
It was Koko,
whose mother is shown here.
Koko is available to us
only because these gorillas
were taken from their mothers,
from their native jungle,
their parents
perhaps slaughtered.
Today, the only place
where a gorilla is truly safe
is within the concrete walls
of a zoo.
In Africa, they're driven
out of the equatorial forests
by farmers
and lumber companies,
as well as poachers.
Only a few thousand
mountain gorillas are left.
Their only enemy is man.
Even though Koko was born
in the San Francisco Zoo,
she's still an animal
of the primeval forest, an exile.
Koko lives in a suburb
south of San Francisco.
This is what's called
her cultural environment.
The names of these places -
Redwood City, Palo Alto -
serve as reminders
that less than 100 years ago,
this area was covered
by a huge forest.
On the campus
of Stanford University,
Penny Patterson, 28,
a graduate student in psychology,
is teaching Koko sign language.
Koko lives
in a specially modified trailer.
Penny lives
with her boyfriend off campus.
She has no children.
She arrives every morning
before Koko wakes up
and returns every night
when Koko goes to sleep.
The experiment began
five years ago.
Penny hasn't had
a single day of vacation since.
Penny's based her work
on the Gardners' work with Washoe,
but with one important difference.
Tests for intelligence and vocabulary
are set up in three different ways.
With signs, with words,
and with both at the same time.
The alligator is bottom left.
It's the third from the left.
Koko scores slightly lower
than a child of the same age.
Gorillas in the wild
are generally vegetarians.
Koko eats hamburgers and takes
vitamins like any American child.
Twice a month,
Koko's life is recorded on videotape.
Twice a week,
a tape recorder is used instead.
Every word Koko uses
each day is checked off.
Sometimes Koko
makes up sentences,
and these too are taken down
and analyzed by a computer
that extracts
their grammatical structure.
Koko doesn't know what to make
of her new yellow sweater.
She wants her old red one.
It was cold that day.
Gorillas are sensitive to cold
and easily catch pneumonia.
At four,
Koko loses her first tooth.
The event was filmed in Super 8.
This game was thought
to have been invented by Koko.
In fact, it's a game played
by young gorillas in the jungle.
This time, it's Koko's turn
to ask Penny something.
How far can Koko progress?
Koko's health
is carefully monitored.
Her urine and blood
are analyzed regularly.
Since early childhood,
Koko has been in daily contact
with deaf-mutes.
Gorillas reach puberty at six
and are fully adult at nine.
Their average life span
is 50 years.
When this film was shot,
Koko was almost six.
She experienced her first
sexual stirrings during the filming.
There's a newcomer
in Koko's life.
Michael, a young gorilla of four.
He already knows a dozen words.
At first Koko was afraid
of Michael.
Then she became jealous,
and then curious.
Now she loves him.
They'll have to wait
at least three years
untiI Michael reaches puberty,
which comes later for males,
to have children.
Watch this.
Koko wants to see Michael.
A lesson in progress.
Koko works
two or three hours a day.
Then she gets tired.
Gorillas in the wild
live in strict hierarchical groupings.
Each gorilla must obey its superior
in the group structure.
Penny, with a place
in that hierarchy,
must enforce that relationship
or risk danger.
All education implies dominance.
How could Penny avoid
transmitting her own values?
Koko may become the first
white American Protestant gorilla.
This film was shot
practically in secret.
Koko was still the property
of the San Francisco Zoo.
The zoo was threatening to send
the police to recover Koko.
Penny adamantly refused
to give her up.
She was ready
to run away with Koko,
or even live with her
in the zoo compound.
In the end,
the Gorilla Foundation,
which Penny created,
bought Koko.
Then we went to see
the zoo director.
Is this Koko's rightful place?
Would you have called the police
to get Koko back?
Koko doesn't have a voice.
Primates' vocal chords only allow them
to emit a handful of cries.
Koko is learning
to use a new tool,
a computer
that speaks out loud for her.
Every 10 minutes,
for several hours a day,
the new machine
invites her to its keyboard.
If someone killed Koko,
would it be murder?
No. To the law, killing an animal
is a mere misdemeanor.
Would a child who behaved
like Koko be put in an institution?
But why must man
be our only standard?
Is the question whether Koko,
because she can speak,
deserves some special status
accorded by man?
Or is it a question
of an animal's right to live
according to the rules
of its own species?
It seems what's been called
intelligence no longer designates
only that intelligence
in full awareness of itself,
but also that intelligence that lives
spontaneously, unselfconsciously.
In fact, Koko raises
all the important questions about man.
One can't decide a priori
that only human beings are persons.
One could prove
that this gorilla is a person.
In our society, a person has
certain rights, limited as they may be.
To grant these rights to primates
is to open the door for the animal world.
Since the dawn
of Western civilization,
we've lived with the idea
of man created in the image of God,
intrinsically different
from animals and nature.
In the wake
of Darwin's theory of evolution,
language was the last remaining
bulwark for this worldview.