Koko the Gorilla

As discussed before, the concept of animal intelligence and how animals feel is a widely controversial topic. Here is a short story about a gorilla named Koko, and her mourning experience. 

When Robin Williams died in 2014, The Gorilla Foundation in the United States  released a statement about Koko's (a gorilla who instantly took a liking to him when he visited)  reaction when  told of the death of Robin Williams (someone she had met 10 years prior).  She became quiet and stoic, bowed her head as if she were in mourning and her 'lip quivered' as she was about to cry.  While many thought it was a beautiful gesture, there were others that ridiculed the foundation for even releasing such a ridiculous statement.

Tiffani Howell, who has a PHD in psychology from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, says "it's really hard to measure things like awareness".

She questioned whether awareness was defined as human consciousness because humans are aware of a past and future and are able to have memories. She wasn't sure animals have that.

"There's been a lot of studies looking at intention and planning and it looks as though some great apes can do some of that and crows and ravens can do some of that but to what extent that means they are conscious the way that humans are, I think that's really, really hard to measure because they don't have [human] language."