The Insane Biology of: The Gorilla 

Koko probably has a higher IQ and emotional intelligence than most africans.

That’s a good point to prove the haters wrong too 🦍🦍

Koko was a fraud.... or rather her communicator/trainer person was a fraud. Cannot believe people actually think a gorilla can sign language and actually know what it is saying, just like "Koko's last message" is exactly the same message the person believes in and wants to spread. Koko was a vehicle to spread the person's message

All mammals have the same brain emotional pathways due to evolution. Anger, aggression sadness, joy, happiness. Even guilt or feeling bad after doing something wrong . Many animals have displays/behaviours/ rituals for their dead. Why dogs pine for their dead owners etc.

​@@pyropulseIXXI Is it really that hard to believe that an intelligent animal would be able to communicate with a human to a certain degree? Humans aren't the only intelligent things to ever exist, and I think this pedestal of intelligence we all sit on clouds our judgement. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. As a kid she probably only did it for the food, and had no understanding of anything, but later in life I do believe she did understanding what she was doing, atleast to a limited capacity.

there are ways to check if that is true or not , Koko show abstraction and is use of sign language was consistent even teach is son that unfortunately died young

Another sign of intelligence that impressed the scientists was when she referred to a bracelet as a "wrist ring" because she hadn't been taught the word bracelet so she combined the words wrist and ring.

IIRC they made a video for some sort of climate initiative with Koko and pretended she understood climate change etc and had a "message" for the people. She was highly sensationalized and her intelligence overblown. Pretty cool nonetheless.

@@segfault- is that kind of maneuvers that make people doubt , but big apes are able to abstraction at some level . humans (and iam not saying we are the best) really stand apart in communication even non verbal , we are the only ones with white eye balls , and the most friendly gesture the smile is perceived as aggression to all mammals including other big apes

Also when she lied and said her cat was the one who ripped the sink off the wall in her enclosure 🤪

good to find someone who spotted that error in the video

Pound for pound, humans can be extremely impressive too. Tyler Atwood deadlifted 340.5kg at 74kg bodyweight, making that a 4.6x.

Sure but there are much smaller people with better ratios even tho their absolute strength is lower. Smaller people are generally stronger pound for pound after all.

The video was full of dubious info. Quite disappointing given the name of the channel. Glossing over the widely reported fraud that was Koko was pretty unforgivable. Also, they;ve never gotten a gorila to do a deadlift, it’s just an estimate based on nothing substantial to the point that it’s practically meaningless. Sticking on a graph next to humans like it’s actual data is such bad science for the sake of clicks that I just can’t trust anything else they have to say.

not only weight but also steroids and training

Fascinating. I can't help but wonder, as I'm sure you have, what he was really up to. I mean, was it a form of play? Was he trying to learn from what you were doing? Mimicking for purposes of social ingratiation? So many possibilities.

That is a neat experience

You were the catalyst that led to the first futuristic great ape nuke. Thanks a lot

​@@mnxsmonkey see, monkey do.

If planet of the apes happens it’s your fault STEVEN 😂

They have to fight against other hippos and gorillas.

it's easier to bite into meat than bamboo

non of them eat bambo, but pandas have a bite force on pair with lions (didn't know gorilla eats bambo

@@flibbernodgets7018 Thank you, now everything makes sense🗿

@@esbeng.s.a9761 bamboo was mentioned several times in the video, but on going over it again I didn't find any direct statement saying they do eat it, so I misunderstood that. Point still stands, herbivores that eat tough plants need to bite good.

A other factor might be that in her case and probably other gorillas that want to interact with humans. They themselves will likely also try to interpret what we are trying to convay to them. No doubt that they do understand that we are trying to do so. We might be studying them but those that are studied might also study back.

There is a very well made video on said topic here on RU-vid, search up : Why Koko (probably) couldn't talk (sorry)

This Real Science video presents the handler's interpretation FIRST which creates ANCHORING BIAS. This is a common technique to create interest at the expense of science.

@@sirBrouwer That's actually a very good point. Wish they could write about us. Oh the things they could say.

Not saying you're wrong, but it's also fair i think to take into account that you only saw one transcript. But yes, i can see how it was probably somewhat inflated and mythologized.

Found the ecologist.

Facts. Really odd to me that we try to personify animals and their actions. When an animal does something that we would consider immoral we have a tendency to try and explain the behavior. But really animals are animals and morality has no place in nature unless it confers an advantage in survival or reproduction.

​@@vmx803 This is, of course, all true. I think why we still do it is because humans are very emotional and social beings, that highly value whenever something (at least) appears to behave human-like. And while we pride ourselves on our intelligence, we are (usually) way worse at hard logic than we'd like to pretend.

We should just base it all on a scale of deliciousness and leave intelligence out of it.

Nah. Hardly any animal is vital to any ecosystem. Most countries in the world have lost their larger animal species and ecosystems to human environments without any concerns.

Love your channel Terra Mater!

Waste of time as there's an ever shrinking amount of " wild " for them to inhabit.

You should check this video about gorilla facts out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aqw8elOwPUk.html

Yeah thanks for publishing lias.

I know, ive been interested in biology a couple of years but couldnt studybin a formal way, this channel helps a lot

A big thing they somewhat overlooked is that gorillas, like all animals have a 50-50 gender ratio so you have a lot of non-dominant males too. Many groups over 7 females have a subordinate male called a blackback who is sort of an assistant to the dominant male. He is forbidden from mating and has to display submission but as long as he does so is accepted and also cared for. Blackbacks often help the silverback with caring for the young and often retain a lot more juvenile traits into adulthood. They kind of are the loser uncle who babysits from time to time. However most non-dominant males leave the group when they become adults. Some live on their own but they usually have friends and are part of bachelor groups. These bachelor groups have much weaker social bonds than troops but they have been shown defending each other and helping each other nonetheless. Homosexual activity between bachelor members is known as well. Most bachelor groups are 2-3 though they often mix and reform constantly. They are not really a closely knit family like the troops but more so a friend group.

Check this video about gorilla facts: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aqw8elOwPUk.html

I made a gorilla facts video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aqw8elOwPUk.html

Can we not trust people to watch the whole video? I think it's perfectly reasonable to explain things as she has done here. If you're going to spend your life thinking you've learned things from introductions, expect to be misinformed.

If you watched just part of the video and formed your opinion. Or you do this with anything. Then the presenter isn’t giving misinformation someone isn’t listening

And in a way yeh they’re receiving the wrong information but it’s their own fault for not listening to the whole thing

It wasn't overblown it was straight up fabricated for publicity.

@@MrCartoonlife User error is myth as much in communication as it is in software. The user getting no information is equivalent to not having been exposed to the material and thus an acceptable outcome from disinterest. False information leaves the user worse off for engaging with the content and deciding they are not interested than they would have been by not engaging at all. Avoiding that trap is a major focus of traditional rules for journalistic writings. As an educational creator, it is something that this creator should be aware of and trying to avoid as well so dekimyay's comment is hopefully noticed by the team. On the other hand, this video could, and probably should have been made without focusing on Koko in my opinion because no matter what was said, someone would accuse them of spreading misinformation due to how controversial the project was/is.

There’s a long weekend’s worth of shit to unpack there.

@mcnulty2794 Not super bitter are you?

They also theorized that since she was the only female this made he insecure in a sense. Gorilla's unlike humans are accustomed to unit's of multiple females to one male. So have a male as a single female who has never had a male would be an unappealing task. It'd be like if a single woman had every suiter with 10 kids, and ex in-laws

@@ZaphodOddly Insecure about when women don't "need" a man, are you?

@@jow3871 Great perspective, didn't think about that.

In theory, a gorilla should be the easy to communicate with, because they have similar senses as us. Most other animals have such superior senses compared to us, it's like they are living in a completely differ world. We can't see, hear, smell, or feel what many other animals can.

​@@LIVEFRMNYC I don't think the senses part is that important now that we have the technology to sense those for us.

I rewatched that like 5 times hahaha

Yeah and Hafthor took steroids and thousands of hours of weight training, so its no where near a fair comparison

Even gorillas have strokes.

I just wonder what 80kg man struggle with 80kg deadlift 🤷 benchpress if you are not working out sure but deadlift?

@filippetrula1234 good point. Even the average (healthy young) man should be able to deadlift 1.5x their body weight even without training.

In Koko's defense, Robin was an extremely hairy man. I can understand why she might have mistaken him for another gorilla....lol

😳 so how’d he manage to genie his way out of THAT Arabian Night?

Of course. However, the interest in these things, I believe, is really (from a scientific perspective anyway) the wish to try and quantify _what_ their intelligence is, and how sophisticated it is, and how we can even quantify that sophistication - as you say, they are gorillas, not humans. Our wider, non-scientific tendency to try and anthropomorphise everything certainly isn't good, though.

Plus all the training and nutrition could you imagine what a yolked gorilla could get with years of hitting the gym

@@TDREXrx9 Hahaha, I find the mental image of a gorilla hitting the gym hillarious! Thanks for the laugh!

@@TDREXrx9 and anabolic steroids

Does the belt actually make the lift easier or just reduce the likelihood of injury?

@@davidcrosthwaite although not a lot, it improves core stabilization via proprioceptive feedback, which helps you to correct the breathing pattern and the movement itself. The strength gains are not impressive, but it definitely helps

I learned thousands of things by watching videos. This internet age is so crazy. I learned a new language by using websites, got lots of important certificates online, met with lots of teachers who really listened to me, and answered my questions. This internet age is crazy. 20 years ago, we were carrying dictionaries in our schoolbags to look up the words to translate something from English to Turkish. Now, with my phone on me, I need nothing. Someone to accompany me on my ride: done. Someone to have fun with tonight: not a problem. Plane ticket to Asia: purchased. Learn Latin and read ancient texts course: enrolled. Write a book for me: ai can do it for you. Create a million dollar business: why not.... with my phone on me, I need nothing. This age is crazy.

Gorillas are awesome. You should check this video about gorilla facts out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-aqw8elOwPUk.html

Is it?

Not a biochemist, I laughed very hard at 10:03

yeah me too, you can make amino acids from carbohydrates from which you take the carbon skeleton and then put amino groups on it, but you can't make amino acids from fatty acids

Yes! We are strong too! 💪😎

Man that was hilarious 😂

Sure you was

​@@iracingrookie3301 Never doubt a nerd on the internet. Except dor that 'friends' part. We don't do that here😉

it was absolutely debunked multiple times lol

​@@cimi93xNo, it hasn't been fully debunked. It seems likely Koko was able to communicate partially through sign language but wasn't at the level that the care taker implied. To make the claim that this stuff has been debunked is equally as bad as saying it hasn't been debunked. It's easier to assume both sides are correct and wrong. Was Koko able to communicate what she wanted? Likely, yes. Was she fluent? No, probably not. Personally I feel like Koko was somewhere in between a dog and a human in the way she was able to communicate. It's basically impossible to tell though.

THANK YOU someone in this comments section that knows how to interpret data lol. Koko's case is indeterminate, not false :')

@@calisto490 Did you ever hear about the study they did a long time ago where these scientists raised their child with a chimp to see what would happen. They never finished the study but we learned a lot of interesting things. They ended the study prematurely as it was having negative consequences to their child. Worth looking into.

@@farexponent9173 haha yeah I'm actually an anthropologist it's a widely known case study :)

They tried to find her a mate

There’s at least 3 reasons why that wouldn’t be possible

That's the real test when it comes to primates learning sign language. Teach two of them and see if they start using it with each other, or whether it's only used in response to human prompts. I wonder if this has been done yet?

Intellegent women have trouble finding mates. As concluded by one human study.

​@@vasudev6960 humm😂

We even share about 50% DNA with a banana.

This is the problem with popular science, that it misrepresents actual studies/findings/etc in order to best appeal to audience interests/desires. People who like animals will start from the view that animals are human-like and then popular science channels will appeal to this bias by emphasizing similarities in a manner that falsely implies cognitive similarity to humans. This video for example starts off with the case of Koko as an example of gorilla intelligence being similar to human intelligence even though Koko is a well proven fraud and case of animal cruelty.

@@josecarlosmoreno9731 This whole 98% thing has also been widely used to promote the idea that we evolved from apes. When we have a 98% similarity with all mammals. It’s very misleading. We even have something like 97% similarity with cockroaches. All living creatures have the same basic building blocks. That doesn’t mean that we came from one another. If anything, it suggests that we were all built by the same creator.

@@charlie15627 ​ God creating the world and evolution are not mutually exclusive, idk why Americans (a lot of the strangest "Christian" denominations seem to be American) have this weird idea. The evidence, be it genetic, developmental, fossil, etc, is overwhelmingly in support of evolution and the human place in it. This doesn't contradict Christianity at all. The only theological question is when ensoulment happened for all humanity. Christ's kingdom is Truth, Truth is determined by Reason and Revelation, to study the natural world is to study God's creation, and therefore to reject scientific findings is to reject both Truth and God's creation. "Christians" who reject evolution reject God as creator of the world, for why else would the evidence prove evolution if not because of God? They also reject Truth as evolution is born of Reason along with the evidence, and therefore they reject God.

@@josecarlosmoreno9731 What “evidence”?

and how many times before that did she sign some nonsense which they brushed off as "oh she's just being shy/nervous"?

ha!

They got me counting down the minutes lol

Wooooo

wahoooo

Just made it. Let's go!

Ez

You're right because it's not possible

Agreed!!! It drives me crazy that people give her owner so much attention, when she kept her locked in a shitty office trailer. People don’t understand that “caring” for an animal, doesn’t equate to proper husbandry for the animal. Back to ASL and languages, Kanzi, the Bonobo, is probably the closest to language use, using a picture board/lexigram. And proper tests done. The lady seems a little out there who has done the studies, but it’s far more “scientific” than what happened to Koko. As an example, Kanzi would point to ball and the colour red, to mean tomato, but also apple. The picture board the turned to a device that spoke, then the pictures became abstract, IE a circle with a line through it, could mean “Red.” Kanzi would eventually figure it out. After associating the words, the trainer would cover their face, or be behind a wall and not visible, and ask for a “Ball” or showing the symbol for Ball, which could be an “X”, and Kanzi would go get the Ball. When a young Bonobo joined in the study, it started to pick up the language and Kanzi would use it to communicate. The humans just let it happen. There were other bonobos in the study, but Kanzi was the only one that seemed truly interested in wanting to learn. Unfortunately, the animal doesn’t look like it is getting the proper exercise/care, and is rather fat and unhealthy looking.

Nah we're good. That's how viruses come about, we've already had one this century, wait for next century.

You might be able to slightly digest fiber, however I believe it’s the fact their secum is much more adapted to do that for them than ours,

raise them together. that's literally the only way to make it peaceful

Gorillas train for entire lives tho not necessarily in deadlift but they are not like average human.

@@vampyberry Gorillas are one of the less active apes. They don't work out in the trees as much as chimps, and a significant portion of the day is spent sleeping and socializing (the siesta) and an additional 11 hours are for feeding. Their musculature is in part due to their myostatin gene differing from humans. Humans with a copy of the gene closer to other apes are jacked as children.

This is the question we all need answered. I know we can do that between humans, but since gorillas are similar to us, idk.

​@@SlinkyDrinky a reliance on 18kg of food a day sounds like it would make the problem worse if anything.

Fr, some don’t like the fact that humans are animals at the end of the day.

Teaching is certainly an effective way to learn language, but that doesn't mean you are learning the language being taught. I'm sure that everyone can think of an example of "you keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means". I have seen people being rewarded for using techno-babble or corporate-jargon, without understanding the underlaying ideas the words represent.