I’m with Jonah on the absolute distinctions between humans and animals—but also on the straightforward sensibleness of recognizing our abiding kinship with certain species. I speak here with a certain peculiar authority, since I’m the only contributor to this happy Corner, I feel pretty certain, who has actually interviewed a gorilla.

From “Koko and Me,” an article that appeared in October 1999 in Forbes ASAP:

Koko ambled toward us and down the other side of the wire barrier. Inky black, she had a large, round belly and an enormous head, twice as long as that of a human, with a heavy brow hanging over brown eyes. If a moment before I’d felt just slightly afraid, now that I was face-to-face with a 300-pound gorilla I found my apprehension dissipate. Look a fish in the eye and nobody looks back. Look Koko in the eye and you feel as though you’ve made a friend.
I decided to put Koko to a simple test. Francine Patterson, her trainer, claims that in addition to speaking sign language Koko can understand several thousand spoken words. “Koko,” I asked, “can you show me your nose?” Koko pointed to her nose. I asked her to show me her mouth. She pointed to her mouth. I asked her to show me her ear. Koko pointed not to her ear but to her eye. I had her. Then, looking please, Koko shook her head and pointed to her ear. Was she toying with me? I can’t prove it. But for an instant Koko had a look that I had seen somewhere else: On the face of my two-year old.I asked if I could touch Koko. Patterson demurred. “I don’t want her catching anything from you.” But when Patterson turned away to speak to someone else, Koko put her finger through the wire to tap me on the knee. I felt like a teenager whose date had just snuck a kiss.