Animals have proven time and time again that they are able to associate stimuli and objects. Pavlov's dogs were trained to salivate at the ring of a bell because they had usually been presented with steak when the bell rang... my cat knows to come to me if she has run out of food, because she knows that I give it to her. Animals have a rudimentary ability to plan ahead. Bears accumulate food before hibernating, birds fly South for the winter, my cat will steadily eat less and less per serving the lower the amount of food in her dish gets (for some reason she thinks it's all she's getting, though she eventually comes to me if I forget to replenish her supply).
Koko the gorilla supposedly learned sign language. I'm not talking about learning simple signs and communicating in basic closed-language form, I'm talking about grasping open-language conversation (such as coming up with a term for ring after never seeing one before ("finger necklace")).
Can they form sophisticated concepts like we can? I doubt it, but they get by on a little more than just instinct.