I’ve never understood the arrogance when people or cultures denounce other species as lesser because homo sapiens “are the only ones who can make tools, speak, or have emotional bonds, consciousness, problem-solving skills, complex thoughts” and the like.
Most of these assumptions have already been debunked, albeit one species and/or one tool that expands our limited sensory ability at a time.
However, we know so few, if any, absolutes about ourselves–individually or collectively–whether about existence, potential, unconscious reactions and impulses, yet people make claims about other species’ limitations that we can’t possibly know, especially when we lack the sensory means that another species relies on.
For example, would you have assumed that mice sing? Not a squeak, but instead they sing in frequencies beyond human hearing and will change their tune to match other mice and woo females. Imagine Elvis’ hip grind if he’d been a Mus musculus.
Elizabeth Oakley Weaver 