Can an ape that has been taught to sign teach its young to sign as
well? If the answer is "nobody is sure yet", what kind of research is
going on with respect to my question, if any?

Dear josiwe-ga,

The Central Washington University's Chimpanzee and Human Communication
Institute (CHCI) is conducting research in this area. If you go to
their site, there is information on this topic.
http://www.cwu.edu/~cwuchci/welcome.html

Linked to this site is the Friends of Washoe web site which provides
the following information on the chimpanzees involved in this
experiment. There, it states that,

?Unlike the other four chimpanzees, Loulis was not cross-fostered.
Loulis was raised by his adoptive mother Washoe and other chimpanzees.
Human signing around Loulis was at first limited to seven signs, but
he picked up many more from Washoe and the other chimpanzees who
signed to and around him.?
http://www.friendsofwashoe.org/meet_the_family.shtml

?As Washoe's adopted son, he acquired his signs from Washoe and the
other signing chimpanzees. He was the first non-human to learn a human
language from other non-humans.?
http://www.friendsofwashoe.org/loulis_bio.shtml

I should state, however, that the wikipedia article on Loulis states
that this assertion that he learnt from other non-humans is disputed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loulis

I hope this answers your question. If it does not, or the answer is
unclear, then please ask for clarification of this research before
rating the answer. I shall respond to the clarification request as
soon as I receive it.
Thank you
answerfinder


chimpanzee "sign language" baby led me to a wikipedia article
referring to the above site.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Sign_Language

Thank you very much. This was merely curiosity on my part, not part of
a project or anything, so for my purposes this answer was great. I am
adding a $1 tip for the promptness of the response.

This whole field is fraught with controversy. I have not followed it
closely enough to have an educated opinion, but I encourage caution.
Penny Patterson and her gorilla, Koko, have been perhaps the most
controversial, but the work with Washoe has also been strongly
criticized. Some of Patterson's claims border on the ridiculous.

Dear josiwe-ga,
Thank you for the tip.
answerfinder-ga

I found the following article. It is skeptical, but gives a reasonably
balanced account, emphasizing the need for further research. The
overinterpretation of an infamous Internet chat session with Koko is
amusing.

http://www.csicop.org/articles/koko/