sticated messages or the ability to apply rules of grammar. For instance, a chimp may see a person holding a banana. The chimp uses sign language to sign its own name and signs for the banana. The researcher may think that the chimp wants the banans, but in fact it may also mean that the banana belongs to the chimp. Many of the apes' sentences are requests for food, tickling, baths, pets, and other pleasurable objects and experiences. Much like the requests of a family dog or cat, which learns simple commands. Other researchers also concluded that chimps are not naturally predisposed to associate seen objects with heard words, as human infants are. The question of language among animals and humans is still highly debated, even in the case of our sophisticated mammalian cousins. Two things are clear, however. First, whatever the chimp, gorilla, or dolphin have learned is a much more primitive and limited form of communication than that learned by human children. Second, their level of communication from a human point of view does not do justice to their overall intelligence; that is, these animal are smarter than their "language" production suggests. Under the right circumstances, and with the right tools, animals can master many language-like skills, but humans remain unique in their ability to use language....
