Koko was 46 years old. I remember reading stories about her years ago as she and her human caretakers were busting barriers about cognition among primates other than humans. Sad.
Koko, a beloved gorilla that learned to communicate with humans and then stole their hearts, has died.
The Gorilla Foundation said the 46-year-old celebrity ape — a western lowland gorilla — died in her sleep earlier this week at the organization’s preserve in Northern California. The Gorilla Foundation, a nonprofit organization that works to study and protect great apes, said in a statement that Koko will be most remembered “as the primary ambassador for her endangered species.”
“Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the statement said. “She was beloved and will be deeply missed.”
The gorilla was born at the San Francisco Zoo on Independence Day in 1971, according to the Gorilla Foundation, and named Hanabi-ko, which means “fireworks child” in Japanese, though she was mainly known by her nickname, Koko.
It was in San Francisco where the newborn gorilla met a budding psychologist, Francine “Penny” Patterson. By the next year, Patterson had started teaching the animal an adapted version of American Sign Language, which she dubbed “Gorilla Sign Language,” or GSL. Video footage from that time shows Patterson playing games with the young gorilla and trying to teach her a new way to communicate.
Koko was featured in National Geographic twice — the first time in 1978 when a photo she took of herself made the magazine’s cover. This week, National Geographic republished that cover story, written by Patterson, along with an editor’s note.
Remember that Koko loved kittens and cats. Here’s a recent (2018) update about Koko’s continuing relationships with her feline friends:
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 
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