Humans are NOT superior to the other species.

[hunter]

62. Whatever "sentience" is...

You say "sentience" is something humans have but animal's don't. But that's a tautology, it's defined in such a way that we can always move the goalposts. We can even move the goalposts to exclude other humans. I can see us building androids someday that are smarter than us, and stronger than us, more fun at parties, sexier, more than human in every way, and people will be claiming they are not sentient. (That story has endless variations in science fiction...)

One thing that sets humans apart is reading and writing. That seems to be a very recent innovation in story telling.

Other animals, in particular many of the cetaceans, may be story tellers too. We don't really know.

It's quite possible most humans are not very good at recalling stories accurately and passing them on to our children. Reading and writing may be an adaptation that compensates for this inadequacy. Those that forget history are condemned to repeat it. But humans still repeat a lot of ugly history even when it's written down.

In any case, I've met many, many sentient animals - dogs, horses, parrots, etc... Clearly "the lights are on and someone is home" even in the dimmest animals.

People are animals too, in every way.