(4/24/98)
Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO -- She can't type, but Koko the Gorilla is not going to let that stop her from using the Internet.
In what is being billed as the first ``interspecies'' Internet chat, Koko will sign on to America Online Monday to answer questions from curious humans around the globe.
Koko, who lives at the Gorilla Foundation in a plush San Francisco suburb in the heart of Silicon Valley, has studied modified American Sign Language for 25 years and is now said to understand some 2,000 words of spoken English.
Working with her tutor and translator, Dr. Francine Patterson, Koko will use her vocabulary of up to 1,000 signs to answer questions posed by Internet chatters.
While some scientists have expressed doubts about Koko's ability to communicate, promoters say the Internet ''conversation'' will help raise awareness of the gorillas' plight.
Lowland gorillas like Koko are threatened by logging and poaching in their native habitats in central Africa, while their cousins, the mountain gorillas, number now fewer than 500 in the wild.
Koko, 26, lives at the Gorilla Institute and has been widely promoted through appearances and the release of a picture book about her and a kitten that lived with her.
Along with her mate, Michael, she has also been exhibited as a painter and prints of one of Michael's still-lifes, entitled ''Stink Gorilla More'', is available for purchase at the organization's Web site, www.gorilla.org.
While not, perhaps, a regular Internet visitor, Koko has had a computer since the late 1980s, when Apple gave her a Macintosh to use as part of a study aimed at developing simpler devices with touch-screen technology.
Koko's Internet chat will take place on AOL on Monday, April 27, at 7:00 p.m. EDT. Others can participate in the dialogue through www.envirolink.org.
Authorities at Envirolink have voiced concerns about whether their users will be able to distinguish Koko from the other AOL chatters.