I believe that many animals have forms of communication close to what we call language - an infinitely productive communication system with displacement and abstraction.

Many animals are capable of working in large groups. To coordinate the actions, efficient and rich communication is required.

On the other hand, with billions of years of evolution yielding advances in locomotion, speed, protection from the environment, it seems improbable that the communication will not develop as much and go sharply from nearly zero to one in a blink of an eye with the great apes.