The importance of interspecies communication "Koko is the kind of girl who, even at 32, loves to sit on her mother's lap and cuddle her. "she weighs 300 pounds" (Adams 1999). When Koko, a baby gorilla from the San Francisco Zoo, was adopted by her mother, Dr. Francine "Penny" Patterson, she was malnourished. Koko, one of the most recognized gorillas in the world, is able to communicate with humans using American Sign Language or Ameslan, the hand of the deaf, used by approximately 200,000 deaf Americans (Patterson 1978). Koko is famous for her ability to communicate with humans and her active role in saving her endangered species. Patterson inherited an interest in psychology from his father who was a professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois. In 1970, Patterson received her undergraduate degree in developmental psychology from the University of Illinois, after discovering that she was much more interested in the makeup of the animal brain. She then attended Stanford University, where she first encountered a chimpanzee using sign language to communicate with humans (Adams 1999). Soon after, she became fascinated with Koko and the possibility of working with her in the same way as the chimpanzees in the video. The name Hanabi-Ko, Japanese for "Child of Fireworks", was given to the gorilla because of his July 4 birthday and Koko became his nickname (Patterson 1978). In 1972, when Dr. Patterson first visited Koko at the San Francisco Zoo, Koko was a three-month-old lowland gorilla playing with her mother. After nine months, Dr. Patterson finally convinced the zoo director to let her teach Koko sign language. On his first visit, "Patterson greeted...... middle of paper ......rch9, 2004, From the Educational Broadcasting Corporation website: www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/ koko/print/newhome.htmlLinden, E. (1986). 164 Issue Eight, p81,1pSchneider, Elaine Ernst (2001) Retrieved from Lesson Tutor website: http://www.lessontutor.com/eesASLIntro.htmlSpilky, Scott (2002). Retrieved from site. University of Illinois Board of Trustees Web: www.las.uiuc.edu/alumni/spotlight/03fall_patterson.html Trask, Larry (1998) Koko the Talking Gorilla Retrieved March 8, 2004, website.: [email protected]