Jim Carrey Online

Koko the gorilla has been featured in THE NEW YORK TIMES, her face has graced the covers of prestigious magazines, three books have been written about her, and scientists hang on her every word. She even has had her life story told on TV -- playing herself, of course.

By the human way of reckoning, Koko is surely the world's most accomplished gorilla, having mastered more than 1,000 words in American sign language. In doing so, she has helped overturn age-old preconceptions about the limits of animal intelligence, expressing thoughts and emotions of astonishing sophistication.

At The Gorilla Foundation in mountainous Woodside, California, where Koko has lived most of her life with her equally expressive male gorilla companion, Michael, researchers are working to uncover and better understand primate capabilities that once were thought to be exclusively human.

"All primates express emotions, but because of her command of sign language, Koko can convey to us feelings that her wild counterparts cannot," explains Dr. Francine (Penny) Patterson, who heads the Gorilla Foundation and has been working with Koko and teaching her sign language since 1972.

Although not unique, Koko is one of the few non-humans known to keep pets of a different species. She has cared for several cats and dogs over the years .

Koko


Can gorillas pretend play? Just ask Koko, though we think she'd probably tell you she would prefer to feed a real gorilla baby any day ? even over her favorite articulating baby doll (shown above).

Koko cares a lot about her caregivers and often shows them by signing "love" or "Koko Love" as shown above.

Koko often likes to pick up the phone when Penny is preoccuppied. Once she hit the redial button and called the Gorilla Foundation's business office. The surprised worker on the other end of the line didn't know what to make of the "purring" sounds, until she called Penny later to make the identification: Koko.




Kokos baby pics

awe..........she has her own pets.........that's cute...........
fluffy

Odd couple make friends in Kenya

Mzee and Owen have become firm friends despite the age gap
A baby hippo rescued after floods in Kenya last week has befriended a 100-year-old tortoise in Kenya.
The one-year-old hippo calf christened Owen was found alone and dehydrated by wildlife rangers near the Indian Ocean.


He was placed in an enclosure at a wildlife sanctuary in the coastal city of Mombasa and befriended a male tortoise of a similar colour.

According to a park official, they sleep together, eat together and "have

become inseparable".


"Since Owen arrived on the 27 December, the tortoise behaves like a mother to it," Haller Park tourism manager Pauline Kimoti told the BBC News website.

"The hippo follows the tortoise around and licks his face," she said.

The tortoise is named Mzee, which is Swahili for old man.

Ms Kimoti said that if the 300kg hippo continued to thrive then in the next few weeks they would allow the public to see the unlikely pair together before they are separated.

The sanctuary, which is on the site of a former cement factory, plans eventually to get the help of the Kenya Wildlife Service to place Owen with Cleo, a lonely female hippo in a separate enclosure.

fluffy wrote:awe..........she has her own pets.........that's cute...........
fluffy

She treats them like her babies cause she cannot have any of her own.


aww that story is so cute.

my baby boy Oreo after I disturbed his sleep (yes he crawls under the blankets on his own lol)

awwww those pics are soo cute.... my cat does that with me.. she sits under the covers with me on my bed

omg................that makes my heart go all squishy............lol

fluffy

The kitten looks like inquiring 'You for lunch?' lol Very cute pics!!