How do animal communication systems differ from human language? Can primates acquire language?

The first 200 words of this essay...

How do animal communication systems differ from human language? Can primates acquire language?

It is a well established fact that animals are able to communicate with one another. Just like humans they need to convey information essential to survival to others around them. Communication can be defined as 'the transmission of a signal from one animal to another, such that the sender benefits, on average, from the response of the recipient' (Slater, 1983) In humans the main method of communication is often thought of as spoken language, but animals are physiologically incapable of speaking to each other. Through the evolutionary process they have developed highly specialised methods of non-verbal communication, many of which are not used by humans.

Many animals use visual communication to convey information, an example of which can be seen in honeybees. Honeybees have developed a dance to communicate the location of nectar. When a bee returns to the hive after finding nectar it performs a 'waggle' dance to inform fellow workers where the food is located. Van Frisch (1955) discovered bees dance in a figure of eight, with the axis of the dance representing direction in relation to the sun, and the