Can Gorillas Learn Sign Language?

Can Gorillas Learn Sign Language? Ape Communication Explained

Can Gorillas Learn Sign Language? The answer is a resounding yes. Language has long been considered the defining boundary between humans and all other animals. Gorillas are the same gentle giants you come face to face with during gorilla trekking in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Rwanda’s Volcanoes National Park.

Sign language is a set of visual signs employed mainly by people as a means of communication. Sign language is important for studies concerning animal cognition due to its power to help avoid vocal limitations, thus making it possible for animals to show certain notions, needs, and emotions. It can be considered an excellent method of researching the cognitive abilities and understanding symbols for non-human primates that depend greatly on visual perception.

One of the best examples of a non-human animal using sign language to communicate is Koko the gorilla. Koko was able to demonstrate remarkable capabilities when it came to comprehending and employing over a thousand signs of American Sign Language (ASL).

The pioneering story of Koko

No name is more central to the science of gorilla language than Koko. Born in 1971 at the San Francisco Zoo, Koko was a western lowland gorilla who became the subject of one of the longest and most celebrated animal language studies in history. Dr. Francine “Penny” Patterson of The Gorilla Foundation began training Koko in ASL in 1972, when Koko was just one year old. Over the following decades, Koko acquired a working vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs and demonstrated comprehension of approximately 2,000 words of spoken English.

What made Koko extraordinary was not just the volume of signs she learnt, but how she used them. She combined signs in novel sequences to express complex ideas. When asked to describe a ring, she signed “finger bracelet“. When she first encountered a mask, she called it an “eye hat“. These spontaneous word inventions, which linguists call ‘productive combinations’, were not trained responses. They were original acts of linguistic creativity, revealing a mind actively constructing meaning from the tools available to it.

How gorillas physically produce sign language

A key question in gorilla language research concerns the physical capacity for signing. Unlike chimpanzees, gorillas have large, powerful hands primarily evolved for knuckle-walking and manipulating vegetation. Gorillas can replicate the precise hand shapes, movements, and orientations that ASL requires. Their manual anatomy with opposable thumbs, flexible wrists, and independent finger control is well-suited to the demands of a gestural language system.

More so, gorillas in the wild already communicate extensively through gestures. Mountain gorillas observed during gorilla trekking expeditions routinely use body postures, arm movements, and hand gestures to signal intentions, negotiate dominance, and coordinate group movement. This pre-existing gestural repertoire suggests that signing did not require gorillas to learn an entirely foreign mode of communication; it built on a foundation that evolution had already laid.

Gorilla trekking and the language you witness in the wild

When you undertake gorilla trekking in Uganda or Rwanda, you are not witnessing signing gorillas; mountain gorillas in the wild have had no exposure to human language training. What you do witness, however, is a rich and structured communication system entirely their own. Silverbacks issue deep chest rumbles that signal contentment or warn of disturbance. Mothers use soft vocalisations and physical touch to instruct juveniles. Young gorillas play-wrestle using body signals that negotiate the boundaries of rough-and-tumble interaction without it escalating into conflict.

Gorilla trekking experts at parks like Mgahinga Gorilla National Park and Volcanoes National Park emphasise to visitors that habituated gorilla families communicate in ways their guides have learnt to interpret over years of proximity. The richness of that communication is itself an argument for the deep cognitive capacity that language research in captivity has only begun to document. These are not silent animals. They are creatures with something to say.

A Comparison between the Gorilla’s Capabilities in Signing and Other Great Apes

There is also some research involving sign language and chimps, as well as orangutans. For example, Washoe and other chimps have shown certain abilities. In terms of signing, chimps are somewhat more flexible than gorillas, but gorillas do demonstrate understanding and communication through sign language.

It is assumed that there are some reasons related to the brains of animals and their social behaviour and communication techniques that can lead to different results in using sign language by various great apes. However, individual gorillas demonstrate great progress in signing, expressing emotions, and socialising through it.

What is the price of the gorilla trekking permit in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park?

The total number of permits per day to be allocated by the Uganda Wildlife Authority for gorilla trekking in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is 144. The cost of the gorilla trekking permit for Bwindi, in case you are a non-foreign resident, is $800 per person. For foreign residents, it is $700, while for the East African citizens, it is Shs. 300,000. In addition, you will only be granted one hour for viewing the gorillas.

Gorilla trekking permits usually sell out too quickly during the peak season, which includes January, February, July, August, September, and December each year. Let us know your planned trek and the preferred date, and we shall look up the availability of permits in the Uganda Wildlife Authority online system. We will give you an invoice if permits are available. If there are none, you will choose other suitable dates which have available permits. After receiving your payment, we shall reserve your permits and give you copies of the receipt along with the booking ID. The process of getting permits is simple and efficient for your trip in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park.

When is the best period for a gorilla trekking safari experience in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park?

As the park is located in tropical forests where there is rain in all seasons of the year, the best season to visit and trek gorillas is the dry season from January to February, June to August, and also early September, since there is less precipitation due to climate change each day. In any season of the year, one can visit Bwindi Impenetrable National Park or Volcanoes National Park. Sometimes, there is an advantage to visiting gorillas during the rainy season because there is abundant food in the forest due to the rain, and gorillas can easily be seen. Book your gorilla permits now