Gorilla Foundation Milestones (1971 through September 2011)
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The Gorilla Foundation is a non-profit 501c3 corporation dedicated to the preservation, protection and well-being of gorillas through interspecies communication research and education. The foundation was established in 1976 and is best known for its groundbreaking work with two western lowland gorillas, Koko and Michael, who were taught to become fluent in American Sign Language (ASL). The results are published in numerous research papers, books and videos that can be found on the Foundation’s website, www.koko.org.
The organization's mission is to bring interspecies communication to the public, in order to save gorillas from extinction, and create a sustainable future for all great apes.
1971
Koko is born on July 4 at the San Francisco Zoo. The name Hanabi-Ko, meaning “Fireworks Child” in Japanese, is selected as the winner of the “name the baby gorilla” contest.
“Project Koko” begins. Francine (Penny) Patterson, a Ph.D. candidate at Stanford University, begins working with Koko at the San Francisco Zoo, initiating the first-ever project to study the linguistic capabilities of the gorillas.
1973
“Project Koko” moves from the San Francisco Children’s’ Zoo to its very own trailer (still in use today) on zoo grounds.
1974
Koko relocates from the San Francisco Zoo to a compound located on the Stanford University campus, paving the way for an expansion of Penny and Koko’s pioneering collaboration.
1976
Dr. Patterson, Dr. Ronald H. Cohn and the late Barbara F. Hiller establish The Gorilla Foundation. Through the efforts of the Foundation, Penny and Ron obtain custody of Koko in 1977, ensuring that their fruitful partnership can continue.
Michael, a bushmeat orphan from Cameroon, is given a home by the Gorilla Foundation. A welcome companion and possible future mate for Koko, Michael also receives sign language instruction and expands the scope of the Foundation’s language and behavioral studies.
In recognition of the pioneering work being done by Koko and Penny, National
Geographic Society awards a grant to Dr. Patterson for the study of linguistic behavior and higher cognitive functioning in the gorilla.
1977
“The Pursuit of Reason”—a landmark article on interspecies communication and animal rights by Harold T. Hayes, featuring the work of The Gorilla Foundation—is published as a cover story in the New York Times Magazine, bringing international attention to Koko and Penny’s groundbreaking studies.
Dian Fossey, renowned mountain gorilla researcher, visits Koko, who is impressed with Dian’s demonstration of gorilla vocalizations.
1978
Dr. Patterson becomes the first woman to receive the Rolex Award for Enterprise honoring her studies of communication and higher cognitive functioning in the gorilla. “Conversations with a Gorilla” is published in National Geographic (154, (4)).
Dr. Jane Goodall visits the Gorilla Foundation to share information concerning the great apes. After returning to Africa, Dr. Goodall writes asking if Koko can provide her with some information to help with her research on wild chimpanzees – surely a first in primate research.
Koko, a Talking Gorilla (a 90-minute documentary film) is produced by Barbet
Schroeder and shown at the Cannes Film Festival. Chronicling the seminal years of Project Koko, the film furthers international understanding of the true nature of gorillas.
“Gorillas are going to be gone before we know it. If we want to save the species, we must act now and utilize all the help that Koko can provide.” Penny Patterson
Image Credit: Photo courtesy Penny Patterson
1979
The Gorilla Foundation moves from Stanford to the forested highlands of Woodside, California, in order to provide a more protected environment for Koko and Michael.
Morley Safer features Koko on 60 Minutes. Koko discovers Morley’s knees are ticklish.
1980
Gorilla Foundation Advisory Board is formed. Members include Jane Goodall and Melvin M. Payne.
The documentary Gorilla (which features the work of The Gorilla Foundation) is released by National Geographic and aired on public television stations nationwide. It eventually is made part of The Best of the National Geographic series.
1981
Work is completed on the gorillas’ 250-square-foot indoor facility addition and 676-square-foot outdoor play yard, providing greater opportunities for gorillas to interact, and to experience many new enrichment activities.
The Education of Koko, a book documenting the early years and discoveries of Project Koko, is published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Dr. Patterson participates in a landmark international symposium (along with Drs. Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas), at Sweet Briar College in Virginia exploring the state of research on the great apes.
Apple, a Landseer Newfoundland-Springer Spaniel puppy, joins the Gorilla Foundation family. Michael, who is becoming renowned for his creativity, immortalizes him in a painting, “Apple Chase,” which depicts Apple engaged in one of his favorite pastimes – chasing Mike!
1983
Koko becomes fascinated by the tiny tree frogs which inhabit her yard. She captures one, and delicately cradles it under her arm, protecting it from Michael. After carrying it around for a while, she places it on some rocks in her yard, under a tub to further shield it from possible rough play. It is an outstanding example of Koko’s innate gentleness and nurturing spirit towards small, vulnerable creatures, and her regard for other species.
1984
The tenth anniversary of NOVA premieres with Signs of the Apes, Songs of the Whales highlighted by the work of The Gorilla Foundation. With the help of volunteers Ray and Sandy Martin, the Gorilla Foundation sponsors an exhibition of gorilla-created artwork in Honolulu in order to raise public awareness about the Foundation and its goals in Hawaii, where the Foundation hopes to establish a gorilla preserve.
Koko selects the tailless kitten All Ball to be her very own companion.
1985
Koko’s Kitten, immortalizing the relationship between Koko and her kitten All Ball, and destined to become a classic of children’s literature, is published by Scholastic Books and featured on the PBS series Reading Rainbow.
National Geographic publishes the cover story “Koko’s Kitten” (167,1), featuring the iconic image of Koko cradling All Ball.
An interview with Dr. Patterson is aired during the National Public Radio program, “As It Happens.”
Koko and Michael are featured with Hugh Downs on 20/20. Hugh Downs subsequently cites this as the most memorable interview of his career.
Time magazine selects Dr. Ron Cohn’s photo of Koko cradling All Ball as a “Picture of the Year 1985.”
Koko and her kitten are featured in the 1986 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records.
The Dakin toy company brings out several “plush” Koko stuffed animals—one life-size.
The Gorilla Foundation pursues serious negotiations and fund raising toward the establishment of a large-scale gorilla preserve in Hawaii.
1987
Koko’s Story, a children’s book liberally illustrated with photos, telling the story of Koko’s early life, is published by Scholastic Books.
1988
William Shatner teams up with Koko to publicize a program under which Californians can help their state’s endangered species by donating money through a check-off on their state tax forms.
Koko features in the cover story of the March 4, 1988, edition of ComputorEdge
magazine, “Gorilla at the Keyboard.”
Discover magazine features a look at our attempts to help Koko start her family with an article in the August issue entitled “Sex and the Single Gorilla.”
Dr. Ronald H. Cohn, co-founder, photo-documentarian, and Koko's surrogate dad.
Image Credit: Photo courtesy Ronald H. Cohn
1989
Koko’s Kitten is dramatized and released as a video production for distribution to schools.
1990
Gorilla Foundation representatives make presentations at the Columbus Zoo Gorilla Workshop, the American Society of Primatologists, and the Institute of Animal Assisted Therapy.
One chapter of the book Gorillas by Sara Godwin is devoted to Koko and Michael. National Geographic, November 1990, provides an update on Koko.
A display of artwork produced by Koko and Michael is exhibited at the Gerard Gallery in Half Moon Bay, CA.
1991
Ndume, a 10-year-old male gorilla, arrives at The Gorilla Foundation from the Cincinnati Zoo. Selected by Koko through viewing videos of available male companions, Ndume has already fathered 4 children and is viewed as a potential mate for Koko.
1992
Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail and Macworld magazine publish articles about Koko and her new “gorilla-proof” voice computer.
1993
The Gorilla Foundation signs a long-term nominal lease for 70 acres of land on Maui from Maui Land and Pineapple Company.
The House of Representatives of the State of Hawaii welcomes The Gorilla Foundation to Hawaii with a formal resolution and recognizes it for protecting and preserving gorillas and other endangered species.
1994
Koko and her computer are featured in Weekly Reader.
Koko and Dr. Patterson are included in a CD-ROM entitled The Discoverers.
Koko and Michael are featured in a 17-minute United Learning video, Animal
Intelligence, which helps children learn about the abilities of animals.
1995
The Gorilla Foundation and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners receive merit award from S. F. Advertising Club for our public service announcement, which made history, as Koko became the first nonhuman to actually do the ‘talking’ in a television commercial. Goodby, Silverstein & Partners produce the Foundation’s 13-minute overview documentary From California to Hawaii pro bono.
National and international media feature Koko as she celebrates her 25th birthday with a non-fat gourmet party and gifts from well-wishers across the country.
Koko’s niece, Binti Jua, makes international news when she helps a young boy who fell into the gorilla compound at the Brookfield Zoo. Koko comments about Binti Jua’s actions: ‘Lip (meaning ‘girl’) good.’
The Gorilla Foundation celebrates 25th anniversary.
Koko's Kitten, translated into French, is distributed in Cameroon under a project initiated by Dr. Tony Rose, TGF conservation director, focusing on conservation values education to deepen local people's feelings for wildlife and to stop the killing of apes for bushmeat. Dr. Patterson chosen as a 1997 Kilby Foundation Laureate honoring her 25 years of dedicated study of primate linguistic abilities.
Gorilla artwork shown at the Terrain Gallery in San Francisco.
1998
Koko makes history with first interspecies chat on the Internet, sponsored by America Online, The Envirolink Network, and H.E.A.V.E.N. Chat becomes fifth largest in Internet history.
Fred Rogers, Koko’s favorite TV personality, airs his visit with Koko on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
Organic cotton T-shirts with reproductions of Koko’s art work go on sale to benefit the Gorilla Foundation.
Dr. Patterson is featured speaker at the Earth-Maui Nature Summit and the Third International Conference on Great Apes of the World held in Malaysia.
Wildlife Protectors Fund (WPF) is established in response to the bushmeat crisis. Headed by Dr. Tony Rose, volunteer Gorilla Foundation director of conservation, the Fund is dedicated to supporting Gorilla Foundation projects in Africa to combat the bushmeat trade, including conservation values education.
New NATURE documentary: “A Conversation with Koko” airs on PBS stations around the country. This documentary is the first comprehensive overview of Project Koko, as told by Koko herself. It becomes one of PBS’ most highly-watched programs. The conclusion focuses on our plans to build a new gorilla sanctuary and visitor center on Maui, in order to save the species from extinction by allowing Koko to play the role of “ambassador” for her species and for the rainforests that we all depend upon.
The book Koko-Love—Conversations with a Gorilla is published by Dutton and released as a companion book to the NATURE documentary, “A Conversation with Koko.”
Dr. Patterson is a featured speaker at the Ninth Annual Conference of Technology, Entertainment and Design (TED), addressing a large audience of the world’s most successful business people, entrepreneurs and innovators, in Monterey, CA. Her talk is entitled “Project Koko and the Maui Preserve.”
Dr. Patterson presents a paper entitled “Words and Pictures: Use of Symbolic
Communication by Two Western Lowland Gorillas” at the Conference on Evolution in Kyoto, Japan.
Olive Hyde Gallery Exhibition of art by Koko and Michael and photographs by Ronald Cohn, Fremont California. The first time Dr. Cohn’s photographs are exhibited with the Gorillas’ paintings.
Dr. Patterson and the PBS/NATURE Documentary (“A Conversation with Koko”) are winners at the 14th annual Genesis Awards, sponsored by the Ark Trust. This annual event pays tribute to media productions that promote animal protection and stewardship of the planet. The other guest of honor is Karl Amman, a legendary photographer who has risked his life in Central Africa to reveal the true story of the “bushmeat” crisis, in which gorillas like Koko and other great apes are being eaten into extinction as an exotic
food source, fueled by the foreign logging trade.
Dr. Patterson is publicly interviewed by U.C. Berkeley neurobiologist Dr. Walter Freedman at the Wonderfest 2000 conference on “Animal Consciousness: Self Awareness in the Great Apes” at Stanford University.
Michael the gorilla, age 28, passes away in April as a result of congestive heart failure.
2001
Maui Preserve Groundblessing and initial construction begin.
Michael Sanctuary for orphaned (bushmeat) gorillas opens in Cameroon, Africa.
Dr. Patterson participates in “The Kilby Interactive Broadcast Series: Extraordinary Role
Models for the 21st Century Student” in Palo Alto, CA.
Koko.org expands into e-commerce and education via KokoMart and KokoTV.
2002
Koko Music CD: "Fine Animal Gorilla," a collection of music about Koko with her own words as some of the lyrics, is produced and released by the Laurel Canyon Animal company.
Koko and Leonardo DiCaprio film a video for the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund (DFGF)Europe, of which Leo is a patron, for showing at a gala held by DFGF-Europe in London to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the scientific discovery of the mountain gorilla.
Dr. Patterson is a featured guest of The Commonwealth Club of California, at DeAnza College in Cupertino, during which she is interviewed by Holly Brady, Director of the Stanford Publishing Course. The title of her conversational presentation is: “From California to Hawaii.”
Dr. Patterson is a featured speaker at the Chimpanzoo Conference, Sacramento, CA, along with Jane Goodall and Dr. Lyn Miles. Dr. Patterson presents highlights of her work with Koko, Ndume and Michael and also meets with other ape language and behavior researchers to discuss future collaboration.
2003
The Gorilla Foundation expands its outreach in Africa by collaborating with the Peace Corps in Cameroon.
Michael Crichton, acclaimed author and visionary, joins the Gorilla Foundation Board of Directors. Dr. Crichton’s 1980 book Congo was inspired by Koko.
The Gorilla Foundation partners with Apple Computer’s online “Apple Learning
Interchange” to offer KokoTV, educational video content about Koko and conservation, as a resource for school curriculum development.
Smoky, Koko’s beloved feline companion for over 18 years, passes away.
The Gorilla Foundation launches a public service campaign on TV, radio and in print featuring Koko and celebrity Robin Williams, honorary co-chair of the Maui Ape Preserve campaign, to raise awareness of the need to act to save gorillas from extinction.
2004
Koko reports that she has a toothache, uses a pain chart to convey the severity of the problem, and requests an operation. After a full medical exam, a tooth extraction and gum surgery performed by a team of Stanford doctors, she receives a clean bill of health.
Dr. Patterson gives the keynote lecture at the California Science Education Conference.
Dr. Patterson and Koko give the first interspecies IMAX video-conference presentation to the At- Bristol Museum in England.
Betty White, renowned actor and animal advocate, joins the Gorilla Foundation Board of Directors.
Yahoo.co.uk names The Gorilla Foundation website, koko.org, winner of the Yahoo!
Search “Finds of the Year 2004” award as “Best Pets and Animals Website.”
Project Koko becomes the subject of students’ National History Day projects across the country, as one of this year’s themes is Communication. Students email interview questions for Dr. Patterson and create elaborate displays for their classes about the significance of Project Koko—and conservation through communication.
2006
Paper published with Dr. Joanne Tanner on the discovery that gorillas seem to have their own natural gestural (or “sign”) language, and that this may facilitate their learning a human sign language such as ASL.
Gorilla Art Exhibit launched at the Sternberg Museum of Natural History in Hays, Kansas.
Koko’s first sitting with the British Royal Family’s famed portrait artist, Richard Stone.
2007
Gorilla Foundation researchers present at numerous conferences around the world about the benefits of exposing captive great apes to sign language to improve their welfare in captivity. A new sign language tutorial database, called ZEST (Zoo Enrichment Signing Tutorial), developed by The Gorilla Foundation is introduced to help other great ape facilities benefit from 2-way communication between apes and caregivers.
2008
The Gorilla Foundation is welcomed as a member of the American Sanctuary Association.
Dr. Anthony Rose comes on board full-time as The Gorilla Foundation’s volunteer Director of Conservation.
Dr. Anthony Rose, Director of Conservation, and Dr. Christa Nunes, Associate
Director of Research, represent the Gorilla Foundation at the 22nd Congress of the International Primatological Society (IPS). Dr. Rose’s presentations focus on Conservation Education and Interspecies bonding and communication. Dr. Nunes’ talk reports on Koko’s speech sound discrimination ability in comparison with human children. KokoTeach, an interactive curriculum development tool for teachers, is launched, allowing Ambassador Koko to come into the classroom to teach everything from sign language and reading to conservation and math.
2009
In honor of the Year of the Gorilla, the Foundation presents the Wildlife Protectors’ Award to Denis Ndeloh Etiendem of Cameroon to allow him to pursue field research on the Cross River gorilla, the most seriously endangered gorilla subspecies. The project goal is to develop a conservation plan for this species, whose native range is the border area between Cameroon and Nigeria.
15,000 copies of the mini-Koko’s Kitten book are distributed to schools and community groups in Cameroon, as part of the Conservation Values Education outreach program to raise awareness.
In Cameroon, Koko’s Kitten books, Koko sign language charts, and videos are used in a successful pilot program to teach sign language to hearing students so they can partner with non-hearing students in their classrooms to facilitate learning.
2010
Twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of the award-winning book Koko’s Kitten is celebrated with the release of a DVD featuring a dramatization of this classic story.
Koko acquires a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and a channel on YouTube to better communicate with all her friends and fans.
The original 70-acre leased site for the Maui Ape Preserve plus an expanded area of approximately 280 acres becomes available to purchase. An appraisal is performed and a new campaign to create an enhanced and permanent sanctuary for gorillas is fast-tracked.
Neurobiologists publish a study of the brain of Michael the gorilla (examined after his passing) revealing a remarkable array of specialized neurons involved in higher-order integration of cognitive and emotional processes. They found a greater number of Von Economo Neurons than any other nonhuman primate studied to date--a number close to that appearing in some humans. This discovery inspires a new Foundation project, “Learning from Michael,” to explore its implications in the context of his life and achievements.
2011
The Gorilla Foundation hires Marcus Perlman, a Ph.D. student in Cognitive Psychology and Linguistics, whose specialty is ape language research and the evolution of language. Perlman formerly collaborated with Dr. Joanne Tanner, a long time ape research colleague of The Gorilla Foundation.
Dr. Marcus Perlman’s research paper, entitled: Multimodal Form and Ritual Associated with the Learned Vocal and Respiratory Behavior of an Enculturated Gorilla, is accepted for presentation at an Oxford University conference on Embodied Language.
The San Francisco-based advertising agency, Goodby, Silverstein & Partner, develops a new 5-minute Koko video PSA, entitled KokoQuest.
Betty White, actor, animal advocate and Gorilla Foundation Board member, devotes a chapter of her new book, If You Ask Me, to Koko.
Former Sun Microsystems VP of Worldwide Marketing, Michael Douglas joins the Board of Directors.
Google Internet Evangelist, Vint Cerf, joins the Board of Directors.
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