|
Gorilla signs that she has a toothache
Way OT, but I think it is just amazing that there is an actual animal out there we can communicate coherently and consistently with like this!A gorilla has used sign language to tell her handlers that she had toothache and has had the tooth extracted. Koko used the American Sign Language gesture for pain and pointed to her mouth, prompting treatment involving 12 specialists, including three dentists. Her handlers said that Koko, a 300-plus-pound ape who has mastered more than 1,000 signs, began telling her handlers at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, California, she was in pain. They constructed a pain chart, offering Koko a scale from one to 10. When Koko started pointing to nine or 10 too often, a dental appointment was made. Twelve specialists including a Stanford cardiologist, three anaesthetists and three dentists volunteered to help. The team went to Koko yesterday, taking portable X-ray and ultra-sound machines. They set up shop at her "apartment," which looks like a remodelled box car. After four hours of tests including a colonoscopy, dental work, X-rays, and ultra-sounds doctors extracted the tooth, gave her a thorough check-up and pronounced her fit. Koko and Ndume, her partner of 11 years (he doesn't "speak"), have been trying unsuccessfully to have a baby, and the doctors thought the checkup could let them know whether she had any biological problems preventing it. She does not. Her teacher, Francine Patterson, was at her side when the anaesthetist prepared to put her under in the morning, and apparently Koko asked to meet her specialists. They crowded around her, and Koko, who plays favourites, asked one woman wearing red to come closer. The woman handed her a business card, which Koko promptly ate. Otherwise, Koko was calm, Liang said. Posted by: Dar 2004-08-09 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=40060 |