At the end of the day, however, IMHO what all this boils down to are the questions: What is language? What is learning?
The way these terms have come to be understood has had to be drastically "defined down" in order for Koko's vocabulary, the ability of apes to learn American Sign Language, or to teach their young how to use sticks to skewer tasty morsels, etc., to even begin to minimally qualify as meeting the criteria of what language is, or what learning is.
When definitions are this "flexible," we can stretch them to accommodate almost any particular set of facts.
One could say on this basis that a horse weaving in his stall is effectively little different than a ballet dancer; for both can be observed to display regular, patterned motions. Or that there's no real, significant difference between the "output" of a songbird, and what Placido Domingo does.
I think there's been a big fad lately of "anthropomorphizing" the animals. This seems to be PETA's specialty.
But then maybe the point I'm trying to make here is so obvious it's actually difficult to see. To paraphrase an observation of S.I. Hayakawa, if we can see in a given situation only what "everybody else" [e.g., the "experts" and the trendy types] sees, than it can we said that we are so representative of our culture as to be a victim of it.
I agree with your position in this debate (no surprise.) But I would like to extend it beyond intelligence and language.
IMHO, there is also a huge ego difference between man and animal. Man is exceedingly more willful ranging from greed, rebellion, murder, jealousy - to generosity, obedience, self sacrifice and altruism.
Certainly we see very rudimentary forms of this among the animals - mothers protecting their young, fighting over food, killing infants to breed again. But it would be astonishing indeed to see a hungry grizzly offer his kill to an injured wolf.
In my view, animals fulfill their environmental niche in this universe while man rebels against it. They aren't in the same league.
Well said, bb, at #150. In a very quiet voice I would add that there has historically also been a fair amount of this activity going on with regard to the attributes of God. Or so it would seem to me ...