What can other great apes really do?

[abaris]

Like many others, I would really love if great apes could communicate with us to the extent some claim, but I am skeptical.

There's several great apes being able to communicate. There's Koko, a 40something gorialla female, there has been MIchael, who died in 2000. Both have learned sign language and you can see there story on kokoflix on youtube. The expirement is discontinued because the supervisor, who also trained both came to the conclusion of it being unethical. Also there Kanzy, a Bonobo, who communicates via computer symbols. There has also been an Orang Utan, who was able to communicate with sign language. His is a rather sad story with kind of a happy ending, since he's now found a family.

But it doesn't end with great apes. There have been numerous experiments on animal cognition with ravens, rats even and most of all with dogs. Brian Hare is one of the leading researchers on dog cognition and the findings are amazing.