The Gorilla Foundation in California shared video of famous sign language-speaking gorilla Koko’s birthday encounter with a box of kittens.
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Koko has a history of cat ownership, receiving her first one for her birthday in 1984.
The description reads: ‘Not only have Koko’s maternal and play instincts kicked in, but she is signing more to her caregivers and generating new content everyday that can be used by The Gorilla Foundation to create empathy for great apes.
The devoted kitties immediately get to work styling her fur. But Koko is as gentle as can be, handling the first kitten she meets with the delicacy she might reserve for a baby of her own kind.
Kitten crowns are so in this fall. The gorilla has always loved babies but has never been able to have one of her own.
Koko has learned to use over 1,000 signs and understands about 2,000 spoken English words.
It is quite fantastic to see the compassion and kindness with which Koko treats her kitten friends and this handsome display just goes to show that animals have much more advanced and awesome abilities than we often give them credit for!
Koko’s project is now aiming to study the emotional awareness of gorillas.
And now, she has two live kittens to take care of.
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According to researchers, Koko mourned the death of All Ball. She even directed the staff to put them on her head.
