We all know from reading "Tarzan" that Bolgani was the name for the belligerent and brutal beast who roamed Africa's jungles.
And a 1954 movie, "Gorilla At Large," was almost enough to give me nightmares as I was growing up. There had been "King Kong" coming out a decade before I was born, but I eventually saw that too (several times). Dad had men's true adventure magazines which told of brave explorers fleeing for their lives from attacks by these horrible, hairy monsters and I once attended a circus where the gorilla escaped from the ring and ran into the audience before being subdued. The fact that the gorilla then removed its own headpiece and was shown to be a human did not necessarily lessen the terror.
But if we wanted to see a gorilla up close and avoid being menaced there was always Ivan the Gorilla, who had a glassed-in cage at the B&I Shopping Center in Tacoma, Washington. On those occasions when the family made shopping expeditions to the big city, about an hour north of where we lived, you could depend on Ivan being there, safely secured in his enclosure and, if you were lucky, you might even have seen him play on his tire swing. Ivan was there for 27 years but finally, as people's attitudes about the true nature of gorillas continued to change, Ivan was released -- to the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle, and shortly thereafter made a "permanent loan" to Zoo Atlanta, where he lived out his last 18 years with other gorillas in a large area carpeted with grass instead of cement until his death in 2012.
Another gorilla who has achieved even more fame was Koko, born on the 4th of July in 1971, who passed away in 2018 at the age of 46. Koko was famous for learning sign language, or at least something called "gorilla sign language." Some have questioned whether Koko was really using sign language in the communicative way that humans do, or whether the language was learned gestures. In 1980, Herbert Terrace, a psychologist who worked with a chimpanzee in a language study at Columbia University, said the language use appears to be motivated more by a desire to obtain some object, or to engage in some activity, than a desire to exchange information for its own sake. First the ape tries to obtain what it wants directly — without signing. When reminded by its teacher that it must sign, the ape often signs until the teacher complies with its request. The critical question is whether the ape is generating sentences or simply running on with its hands until it gets what it wants.
Nonetheless, it's for certain that Koko could communicate, at least in a responsive way, and was also a gentle and loving creature, the opposite of the way that gorillas are portrayed in popular culture, such as the homicidal hominid in our Tarzan novels. Koko was also known for adopting pet kittens and playing with them in much the same way as would a human. It's true that gorillas are powerful beasts and could easily pound a human to a pulp if they were so inclined. It's just that, treated humanely, most of them aren't inclined to do that.
Here's an article on Koko's 2018 passing from the New York Post:By Lia Eustachewich Koko, the thoughtful gorilla who captivated the world through her ability to use sign language and revealed an empathetic side to great apes, has died. She was 46.The western lowland gorilla passed away in her sleep Tuesday, June 19, at the Gorilla Foundation’s preserve in California’s Santa Cruz mountains, the foundation reported. “Koko touched the lives of millions as an ambassador for all gorillas and an icon for interspecies communication and empathy,” the foundation said on its website. “She was beloved and will be deeply missed.”
Koko was believed to have had an IQ of between 75 and 95 and could sign more than 1,000 words. The average IQ of a human is around 90 to 110. She also understood spoken English. Born at the San Francisco Zoo, the gentle, nearly 300-pound ape began learning sign language as a baby in 1974 from Dr. Francine “Penny” Patterson as part of a Stanford University project. She spent her entire life in captivity and became a celebrity in her own right. Her remarkable ability to sign landed her on the cover of National Geographic twice — in 1978, in a photo she took of herself in a mirror, and again in 1985, with an image of her mourning the death of one of her pet kittens.
Throughout her life, Koko adopted several felines, using sign language to give them names like All Ball, Lipstick and Smoky. She was gifted a box of kittens on her 44th birthday. Her love of animals spawned the children’s book “Koko’s Kitten” and her own branded line of toys. In 2012, she stunned scientists by playing wind instruments, including the recorder, harmonica and party-favor whistles — an ability that showed primates can learn to control their breathing, NPR reported. Controlled breathing was believed to be beyond their ability. Koko met a slew of celebrities over the years, like Betty White, Leonardo DiCaprio and the late Robin Williams — who shared hugs and laughs with the gorilla during their 2001 encounter. “Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world,” the foundation said.Posted with this article is a "mourning cover" I made for Koko, postmarked the date he passed away..
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