[LINK] "The world’s most famous gorilla is showing signs of early speech"

[rfmcdonald]

Jake Flanigin's Quartz article caught my attention.

Koko, a 44-year-old gorilla famous for her ability to communicate with keepers using sign language, is now showing signs of early speech. “Koko has developed vocal and breathing behaviors associated with the ability to talk, which were previously thought to be impossible in her species,” The Daily Mail reports. The new development could further blur the line between what distinguishes humans from some of our more hirsute cousins.

[. . .]

Primatologists have long believed in a limited “vocal repertoire” for each species of ape—rendering them unable to learn new sounds beyond a certain range. This theory suggests that development of verbal language is a uniquely human characteristic. Koko is perhaps on the verge of shattering scientific notion.

Marcus Perlman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has been working at the Gorilla Foundation, which houses Koko, since 2011. “I went there with the idea of studying Koko’s gestures, but as I got into watching videos of her, I saw her performing all these amazing vocal behaviors,” he told The Daily Mail. These were learned behaviors, and not part of a “typical gorilla repertoire,” Perlman and fellow researchers found.


Though Koko’s command of sign language is indeed extraordinary, Perlman believes she is “no more gifted than other gorillas … The difference is just her environmental circumstances. You obviously don’t see things like this in wild populations.”