In an article about apes and language (Koko) I come across an interesting statement - that apes (or Koko, and other apes that have been taught to sign) - do not use their language skills to ask questions.
At first this seems curious, especially since they have of late seem given to lecturing us about climate change, but then I reflect upon it further...
Consider the circumstances of the Ape. Raised largely or entirely in captivity, in an environment that it knows instinctively is "wrong", would it even have the awareness to ask questions? Do hostages, prisoners ask questions? From the moment their imprisoned all conditioning is geared towards "learned helplessness", unlikely (despite the hero's of Hollywood that query their captors from the chair where they're tied and being tortured, this is fiction) that an Ape or Chimpanzee would think to question it's captors...
Animals - all animals, are naturally inquisitive, every animal will explore it's surroundings, recognize change, why then do they not voice their questions?
But take if further. How many people ask questions? Real questions, not "how much did that car cost...?", a polite convention, or "What would Jesus Do?", a philosophical idiocy, or "What are you doing tonight?", "How was your week?", polite commonplace rhetoric phrased as questions, but with no real hope of insight or revelation...no self-respecting ape would stoop so low, these are merely unconscious routines of language and manners, ...
---Perhaps the real surprise is not that apes don't ask questions, it's that so few people do...