Indeed there are conceptual and communications skills we possess that no animals approach. The problem I find in these debates is that we each have different id

Indeed there are conceptual and communications skills we possess that no animals approach. The problem I find in these debates is that we each have different ideas what terms like intelligence, understanding and consciousness mean. Consciousness is particularly difficult because we use it in so many different ways. If you look in most dictionaries you will see about half a dozen different definitions ranging from meanings equivalent to perception, all the way up to awareness of ones self and the world, or self-reflection. Personally I see no reason to suppose that the capacity for self-reflection depends on the cognitive skills underlying language, rather it seems to me it's likely to be the other way around. If this is correct, then I expect our ancestors evolved self-reflection before language, and therefore other animals might also have developed that capability without having language in the sophisticated form we possess. Viewed in this way, if animals, particularly higher mammals and primates exhibit behaviour consistent with self-reflection and self-awareness, it seems reasonable to me that they may have inherited this capacity from a common ancestor of ours. That's especially so if many different species exhibit this trait. It seems unlikely that such behaviours would evolve completely independently in so many different species that are all related to each other and share so many common neurological features.