Today we are sharing an episode from one of VICE's newest series -- A Show About Animals. This season, we tell the strange and wonderful story of the wildly famous Koko the “talking” Gorilla. 

In the early 1970s, a grad student named Penny Patterson set out to investigate a big question: is language unique to humans? So she begins an ambitious experiment -- with the help of a young gorilla named Koko. Pretty soon, Penny says Koko is learning sign language. But, of course, that’s not the whole story. 

You can listen to our weekly series, A Show About Animals, in all the places you get your podcasts. 

A Show About Animals is hosted and reported by Arielle Duhaime-Ross and produced by Julia Nutter and Pete Lang-Stanton. Our associate producer is Leily Rezvani. Sound design and original score by Pran Bandi, with additional support from Steve Bone. 

Annie Aviles is our executive editor. Our executive producer and VP of Vice Audio is Kate Osborn. 

Special thanks to Maximo Anderson for fact-checking.

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