The Talking Gorilla

Hanabiko, famous with her nickname, Koko, a 48-year-old female western lowland gorilla who is known for learning more than 2000 hand signs as claimed by Francine Patterson, her instructor, and psychologist. Koko was lent to Francine for her doctoral research but the two have never been apart. Koko was born in a San Fransisco Zoo on July 4th, 1971, and has been living in Woodside, California for most of her life. She has been famous for her sign techniques as you can see her with the late actor Robin Williams, reportedly she was even sad when she was informed of his demise in 2014. She grabbed everyone’s attention when she requested for a Christmas gift of her own choice! 

Koko And Her First Kitten

On one Christmas, back in the 1980s, Koko, whose favorite book is “The Three Little Kittens” and “Puss ‘n’ Boots,” asked for a kitten as her Christmas present. “But we gave her a life-like stuffed animal and she was terribly upset,” recalls Ron Cohn, a biologist. However, Koko was smart enough to know the difference and denied playing with the toy and kept indicating how sad it was! Soon, on her next birthday, she was allowed to choose a kitten and she adopted a gray and white kitten and named her ‘All Ball’. Cohn recalls, “The cat was a Manx and looked like a ball. Koko likes to rhyme words in sign language.” Both were on National Geographic magazine’s cover that month. 

Lipstick

Koko later got a new yellow cat whom she named as “Lipstick” but she left after some time. And Koko, who adored her kittens a lot, was left alone. Koko, after Lipstick’s death, got a cute gray-tailless cat whom she named ” Smoky”, who lived with Koko over many years. She passed at her old age due to natural causes in 2004. Koko, who used to love kitten like a mother stayed kitty-less for many years after that. But that wasn’t it for her as now she was about to get a bigger opportunity.

Now Two Of Them!

In 2015, Koko got to chose ‘Miss Gray’, while ‘Miss Black’ chose Koko. Koko who showed the least interest in making close relations with other male Gorillas and hence had not become a mother till her 40s even, seemed to get connected with these kittens very closely.

Cunning Reply

She cared and pampered them just as she would’ve to her own baby gorilla! A funny famous incident about the innocence of Koko took place when she unintentionally broke a sink vase and when she was asked who did it, she blamed one of her kittens for it! A human-like nature and such a tricky yet friendly gesture, indeed! Koko and Bubbles aren’t the only two, there’s one more example!

A BFF Trio

Who says one can have only one best friend? Not just humans tend to have a BFF group at times, also there’s an amazingly unique trio of three different species animals living together since their childhood.

While a drug raid in 2001, 18 years ago, three wild babies were rescued from terrible circumstances, from a drug dealer’s home in Atlanta who kept them in cages under his house. The three are famously known as BLT, a trio of Baloo the American black bear, Leo, the lion and Shere Khan, the Bengal tiger has been inseparable at the Noah’s Ark Animal Sanctuary in Locust Grove, Georgia. How the three stick together in bad times is inspiring!