Humans are a form of animal, but a form never before seen on this planet. A vastly superior form at that. In the brief time we've been on this planet, we've completely colonized the planet, radically reshaped it (not in the physical shape of the planet, but environmentally and such), escaped its gravity, and even scratched at the surface of understanding the base of the universe itself. Our intellect separates us from the herd and allows us to dominate the rest. While many species have varying degrees of intelligence, no species comes close to the level of intelligence and extelligence innately possessed by humans. We are the superior species till a better one comes along.
I've always likened humans to the mage class of RPGs. Not strong, not fast, not nimble. Nature neglected all other attributes which are found in other animals and focuses almost exclusively on intelligence. One on one against most other animals, the human is screwed. We're rather fragile when compared to much of the rest of the animal kingdom. But we can think and we can create, and because of that we can dominate. We may not win at arm wrestling a bear, but we sure as hell can invent the gun to kill the bear before it gets to that stage.