Julie,the most relevant difference between us and apes in general,which got us to be what we are,is learning capacity.We spend our entire life learning.You can teach an ape how to read and write and use basic language to communicate,but so what?!They don't feel the need,when they're happily and freely living in the jungle,to go and learn these things.They never needed fire(as we did,changing our hole history)or even if they do,they don't try to work out how to have it.Of course they are intelligent.Of course they have the potential.But not the drive or the initiative.As both human and ,say,gorilla species started with the same potential,humans never stopped complicating their life to get it easier,inventing,wondering,working on theirselves:actually,,inventig the human.Other apes stopped at their state,never going any firther for thousands of years,apart from what natural selection got them to change,slowly.
And even if apes are most fascinating,moving creatures,for some reason humans fascinate me more:this insatiable thirst for knowledge and sharing it.Take the purely social purposed invention of music:for humans getting together wasn't enough.They had to invent something to amuse,entertain,excite each other.