When you hear the phrase 10 traits you thought were exclusive to humans, you might picture a uniquely sophisticated species perched atop the evolutionary ladder. Yet, the natural world is brimming with creatures that flaunt these very same characteristics. From cultural knowledge to culinary creativity, animals have been quietly mastering the very traits we pride ourselves on. Below, we count down the ten most unexpected human‑like traits that have been documented in other species.
10 Sharing
Knowledge‑sharing, especially from one generation to the next, propels humans to the pinnacle of the food chain. It essentially defines culture. Yet this isn’t a uniquely human pastime. Baboons teach each other optimal foraging routes; fledgling birds master flight by observing their parents; and rats discern safe foods by smelling one another’s breath. Even fish benefit from the guidance of seasoned members in their schools. And it isn’t limited to social species—solitary animals display cultural foundations too. Young tortoises, for instance, learn to navigate novel obstacles by watching older conspecifics.
When a species vanishes, its cultural knowledge often disappears with it. The dwindling North Atlantic right whales, decimated by historic whaling, now lack the ancestral feeding‑ground wisdom of their forebears, further imperiling their survival. Culture isn’t always beneficial; entrenched, non‑adaptive traditions can misalign with shifting environments, steering a species toward extinction. Humans are currently confronting this very dilemma.
9 Weird Trends
In the era of TikTok, human fads grow increasingly bizarre. Yet, other animals also indulge in strange, time‑limited trends. White‑faced capuchin monkeys in Costa Rica display odd customs such as sniffing each other’s fingers and playing a game where one monkey bites off a clump of another’s fur, holding it in its mouth while the victim attempts to retrieve it. These traditions typically last about a decade—mirroring many human fashions—and tend to be highly localized, so a trend in one troop may never appear in another.
Most of these trends provide no obvious survival advantage. One particularly unsettling habit observed in a Costa Rican capuchin group involved inserting a dirty finger up to the first knuckle into a companion’s eye socket, just above the eyeball. The recipients wince, yet they neither resist nor discourage the act; instead, they seem to encourage it, allowing the behavior to persist for up to an hour. It resembles a painful tattoo or piercing, offering perhaps only a strengthening of social bonds.
8 Fashion
Beyond whimsical trends, the animal kingdom also embraces fashion. Bearded vultures, sporting pristine white feathers, dab iron‑rich soil onto their plumage—a form of makeup that signals status, with older, dominant birds sporting the most vivid coloration. Even fruit flies participate: virgin females show a preference for green‑dusted males after observing other females mate with them.
Chimps have also taken up sartorial statements. Since 2010, a chimpanzee in Zambia began inserting a blade of grass into her ear, a habit that quickly spread. Though it offers no clear survival benefit, the behavior proliferated across multiple groups, with four distinct communities adopting the grassy ear adornment.
7 Drug Use
Recreational drug use isn’t a human monopoly. Jaguars in the Amazon hunt down DMT‑laden yagé vines—the same ingredient used in ayahuasca brews. Lemurs indulge in narcotic millipedes, and dolphins chase high‑states by gnawing on pufferfish, then drifting upside‑down while gazing at their reflections.
Some animals become so enamored with their chosen substances they endure significant drawbacks. Bighorn sheep, addicted to lichen, grind their teeth down to the gums to scrape the nutrient‑rich mineral from rocks. Spider monkeys, intoxicated by fermented fruit, vomit and tumble from trees. An inebriated moose in Sweden famously became lodged in a tree after overindulging.
Drugs also serve as coping mechanisms for adverse moods. Rats confined to barren cages opted for sweetened morphine solutions over water, ultimately drinking themselves to death. Even fruit flies turn to alcohol when mate‑searching proves fruitless.
6 Facial Expressions
Smiles, frowns, and a rich tapestry of facial cues often feel uniquely human. Yet sheep not only display facial expressions, they also recognize them, distinguishing calm, startled, and fearful looks in fellow sheep and even differentiating between human faces. Domesticated dogs possess a similarly expressive repertoire, whereas their wild wolf ancestors exhibit a more limited range—suggesting selective breeding has honed interspecies communication.
5 Sense of Humor
Laughter likely didn’t spring from human imagination alone. Researchers propose it evolved from the panting sounds produced during playful fights among apes, a signal that the scuffle isn’t serious. Tickling a great ape today elicits a similar panting‑like laugh, indicating shared lineage.
Some apes display more sophisticated humor. Koko the gorilla, proficient in American Sign Language, once tied her trainer’s shoelaces together and signed “chase,” a mischievous prank. While some argue humor is universal among mammals, others suggest it extends even to insects. As we uncover deeper layers of animal cognition, the line between human and non‑human humor continues to blur.
4 Complex Language
Koko’s linguistic prowess also showcases an appreciation for complexity—when asked to name “hard” things, she responded with both “rock” and “work,” recognizing the word’s dual meaning. Surprisingly, the most intricate non‑human language resides not with great apes but with prairie dogs.
These highly social rodents emit distinct alarm calls for different predators—coyotes, hawks, humans—and attach descriptive modifiers detailing size, color, and other traits. This allows them to construct sentence‑like structures, and under laboratory conditions they can even describe novel objects they’ve never encountered.
While we’ve only begun to decode prairie‑dog chatter, their constant vocalizations suggest a rich, ongoing dialogue far beyond simple warning calls.
3 Storytelling
Storytelling feels like a hallmark of humanity—our primary vehicle for preserving culture, history, and imagination. Yet bees execute a form of narrative through their famed waggle dance, encoding distance, direction, route difficulty, and resource value to inform hive‑mates. This dance is essentially a shared story about food.
Dogs may also construct narratives when they paw at food bowls or scratch doors, indicating problem‑solving intentions and future plans. Some scientists speculate that dolphins could project 3‑D “sono‑pictorial holograms” using echolocation, crafting stories in a medium beyond our perception.
2 Spirituality
Jane Goodall observed chimps swaying rhythmically to waterfalls, then sitting in awe—behaviors reminiscent of human spirituality. Some chimp activities, like throwing stones to leave markings on trees, hint at ritualistic or perhaps religious undertones.
Across the animal kingdom, death ceremonies are surprisingly common. Elephants hold solemn processions when a herd member dies, attracting nearby herds that linger despite predator threats—a display of collective courage echoing human faith. Dolphins have been documented guarding a deceased female’s corpse for days, even fending off divers attempting to remove it, and protecting an infant’s body against seabirds.
Chimp mothers continue to cradle and groom deceased infants for weeks or months, only relinquishing them once decomposition is complete. Similar mourning rituals appear in gorillas, baboons, macaques, lemurs, and various bird species such as crows and jays.
1 Cooking
Fire revolutionized humanity, granting us warmth, expanded diets, and faster digestion. While no wild animal cooks with fire, some have demonstrated the ability. A bonobo learned to ignite a flame using fuel and matches supplied by researchers, then used it to grill burgers and roast marshmallows—later passing the skill to his offspring. Though the bonobo viewed a film about fire to spark the idea, it still mastered the technique, a feat many humans struggle to replicate under ideal conditions.
Culinary creativity extends beyond fire. Japanese macaques wash sweet potatoes before consumption, favoring salt‑water seasoning for added flavor. Pigs have been observed rinsing dirty apple chunks in streams. Shrikes impale prey on thorns or barbed wire, allowing it to decompose before eating. Capuchin monkeys sun‑dry palm nuts to facilitate cracking. Even ants engage in a form of cooking: big‑headed ants place food on larvae’s bellies, prompting the larvae to secrete enzymes that pre‑digest the meal.
Why 10 Traits You Should Care About
Understanding that the 10 traits you once believed set humans apart reveals the deep interconnectedness of life on Earth. It challenges anthropocentric views, promotes conservation empathy, and sparks curiosity about the hidden lives of our fellow creatures.