Can a bear be taught to communicate in sign language?
It depends on what you mean by sign language. Bears can be trained use body signals to indicate basic desires, just like a dog can be trained to bring its owner its leash when it wants to go for a walk. Bears cannot be trained to use any human sign languages such as American Sign Language because they do possess the fine motor skills of humans. Even if they could use signs, like some trained chimps are able to do, there would still be a debate over whether it can be considered language or not. This is an ongoing debate in psychology with most psychologists agreeing that language is a solely human ability. There would also be a limit to the number of signals the bear could acquire. A professor at my university, Dr. Gardner, trained a chimp named Washoe to use American Sign Language over a 51 month period. Washoe was able to acquire 151 signs during that period. Since it is generally accepted that chimps have a larger mental capacity and have a higher aptitude for communication, due to t
