There are of course some Australian birds that famously spread fire, so partial credit IMO.
Also, figuring out how to make fire is pretty hard. I’d argue it isn’t something “humans do” in general. It is one of the earliest examples of something that somebody figured out, (or maybe it was figured out independently in a couple different places) but mostly it is a taught skill.
Teaching and long distance running are our special abilities. In both cases other animals might do the thing, but we’re much better at it than they are.
IIRC that's more like a Australian media stunt from one single source, never verified or replicated.
There's this one guy trying to explain why there's wild fire and it's not any human's fault, which inadvertently caused a great debate "animals can utilize fire".
> I agree about fire, but I'm pretty sure you can count bees making honey as cooking.
Cooking is to apply heat to transform raw ingredients into a different, often edible form. Bees make honey by collecting nectar from flowers, storing it in their honey stomach, and then regurgitating it into honeycomb cells. During this process they add enzymes to the nectar and fan their wings to reduce the water content, transforming it into honey. Bees transform raw material, but not by heating it.
Also, figuring out how to make fire is pretty hard. I’d argue it isn’t something “humans do” in general. It is one of the earliest examples of something that somebody figured out, (or maybe it was figured out independently in a couple different places) but mostly it is a taught skill.
Teaching and long distance running are our special abilities. In both cases other animals might do the thing, but we’re much better at it than they are.