So we are the upper species on the planet. We can think, talk, build, etc. We provide leadership to the other species. Or are we?

Do you, like me, sometimes think that we as a species can learn a great deal from animals? I tend to think that the only reason we're not tearing each other to pieces is out of fear of arrest and/or incarceration. Animals don't have social contracts or institutions that regulate their relations, yet they are more tolerant of each other than us. They also appropriate just enough food to survive (in other words they do not amass a great deal of wealth and/or register title deeds for properties they probably won't even use in a lifetime. In contrast we humans want to grab as much as we can and register the rest at the Deeds Office, to ensure that other humans can't touch it.

Do you have any thoughts on this issue.