The RIP thread...

One of the sad things about Koko's death is that the Gorilla Foundation's "research" is deeply suspect and that they may have treated the few gorillas in their care inappropriately and neglectfully (plenty of complaints from former foundation workers to suggest maltreatment). Certainly, the lack of proper data released by the foundation and their unwillingness to cooperate with other researchers means that Koko's unusual life did not teach us how much Gorillas really use language, how much their use of language is unique to them and how much they share in common with us.

Most of the news reporting on Koko's death mentions none of this, indulging in the same sentimental anthropomorphism that Paterson used to exaggerate the value of her work.

I see the Guardian repeats the story that Koko mourned Robin Williams. That's a pure anecdote for which the Gorilla Foundation provided no documentary evidence. There's no account of them doing anything to verify that she understood what they'd told her. From what video evidence there is of Koko conversing (with Penny Paterson's highly dubious translations), she rarely used language to do anything other than express immediate needs and never referred to any thing/person/state outside her immediate environment.

But hey, a cute story about the life of a talking gorilla is much cuter than one about dishonest researchers who neglected and abused the few gorillas in their care and fraudulently raised millions of dollars based on entirely fictitious accounts of their contribution to the conservation of gorillas in the wild.