A story I came across this morning.
I personally doubt that most(any?) animals can think abstractly to form communication more complex than 'Polly wants a cracker'.
But if the test is simply to express desire or recognition. I think anyone who's ever owned a dog wouldn't doubt they can express themselves. It's just that they generally are more aware of actions, emotions and tone than individual words. Ha, ha.
I imagine that the trick is to find ways that code 'thoughts' to fit into their worldviews. We've never had a dog that didn't understand a guttural 'uh-uh-uh' the first try.
For years I wondered why parrots liked hot peppers so much until I realized it was their sense of taste. Peppers are a treat they can actually taste.
We used to have one exceptionally smart dog that shocked my wife's brother one time. He was visiting and I told the dog to pick up her toy (it was on the front room floor) so the dog did and just stood there -- now what? So my wife told her 'Take it to your bed' so she did -- she took the toy in the other room and put it on her bed.
My brother-in-law just stood there -- 'Your dog speaks English.'
'Yep. Amazingly well.'Ha, ha.
apes, horses, pigs are bright, no doubt dolphins, orcas, elephants.....we arent near as unique, nor as smart as we (humans) like to believe.
"bright" -- true
. . . let me know when they write poetry, or build rockets to moon/planets.
@FearlessFly it's true, they do tend to not waste thier time and resourses with unnecessary activities so much.