Thanks for the thoughtful post. I am a bit late, but I meant coming up with a Hypothesis and validating it through empirical evidence. Connecting these two explicitly needs logic (when I do x y happens) and, IMHO, logic needs language (or at least seems to have a relationship with language).

I guess if animals can do this, we have to options: either animals have language (even if basic) or the scientific method does not require language. I see merit in both arguments.