PARIS: Koko the gorilla is already famous for her ability communicates with her keepers using sign language, but now she is showing signs that she may be able to learn to talk.
Simple sounds learned by the 44-year-old ape could change the perception that humans are the only primates with the capacity for speech.
Koko has developed vocal and breathing behaviours associated with the ability to talk, which were thought to be impossible in her species.
In the 1930s and 40s a number of psychologists attempted to raise chimpanzees alongside human children, attempting and failing to teach them to speak.
Since then it has been generally accepted that apes are not able to voluntarily control the sounds they produce or even their breathing.
Experts also believed the vocal repertoire of each ape species to be fixed, so that they are unable to learn new sounds and breathing patterns, suggesting the human ability to speak is unique.
Marcus Perlman, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: ‘This idea says there’s nothing that apes can do that is remotely similar to speech.
