Program areas at The Gorilla Foundation
Education: (Projects KokoApp and KokoKids)a) We finally completed the first release of the Koko Signs app, in partnership with ArcTouch.com, after nearly 10 years of planning. It was released to the general public on Dec. 27th, in both Apple (iPhone iOS) and Google (Android) app stores, after being available to donors as a pre-release for 1 month.b) As part of our KokoKids (aka Kids4Koko) outreach project, we partnered with 2 African gorilla conservation education groups, asking them to review the new Koko Signs app as both an educational vehicle and a conservation tool.c) We continued to post new videos from our KokoArc library on our social media and web sites.
Welfare: (Project KokoCares)a) In FYE2023 we completed the design of an ideal gorilla sanctuary (tentatively called the KokoMaui Sanctuary) with the help of a world-class architectural designer Patrick Janikowski & Associates. The resulting 3D design images are now being used to attract partners to help implement the design and commit to populate the sanctuary, which we could build on our 70 acres of leased land on West Maui (available until at least 2058). This would help captive gorillas who cannot adapt to zoo life, or are too old to be placed on exhibit i.e., for reasons of age and/or disability.b) We also continue to visit gorilla Ndume at the Cincinnati Zoo twice per year to monitor his physical and mental states. We are not satisfied that he is in a sufficiently supportive environment, but there isnt much we an do other than continue with our new sanctuary design, and help the Cincinnati Zoo emulate as much as possible of it to enhance the lives of gorillas in captivity.
Research: (Project: KokoArc)In FYE2023, we digitized another 1000 or so analog video tapes that were part of the Project Koko interspecies communication research archive. This brings it to a total of about 1700 tapes, which is over 90% of the full research video archive.We also produced and shared dozens of videos from this archive on The Gorilla Foundations social media, website and enewsletters during FYE2023.And we included samples of these videos, as sample Conversations within our new Koko Signs app (see Education).This content is being used to educate the public about the value of interspecies communication for great ape care in captivity and conservation in the wild, and will soon be used to collaborate with other researchers who want to extend the science of interspecies communication by analyzing, replicating and transcending our data.