A foggy morning in the Santa Cruz mountains, I entered Koko’s home after a soft knock on the door and a whispered good morning. I was quickly greeted with her purr from the other side of the mesh fence. When I took the scarf off my head, revealing my freshly dyed bright purple hair, she tilted her face toward me and opened her eyes wider than I had ever seen them before. Koko promptly signed “candy hair,” both a description of the new color and a name that she would continue to use for me. Having often combined signs in novel ways, Koko’s ability to comprehend and respond to the world has proved an inspiration and an insight into the cognitive abilities of nonhuman minds.
The following is a series of quick sketches drawn from life during the four years that I spent as friend, companion, and caregiver to the two lowland gorillas, Koko and Ndume. I still return to visit them and am continuously moved by their remembrance of and compassion for me. To learn more about Koko and Ndume, The Gorilla Foundation, and “Project Koko,” the longest interspecies communication study in history, please visit: Koko.org