I had a pretty awful Saturday. Wielding my mighty lab book and a small pencil, I joined my friend on a perilous journey to record instances of animalistic behavior. At the mall. And the animals were people. But trust me, humans do weird things all the same.

In any case, we like to think of our species as highly evolved and somehow better than any other species. After all, we have languages, walk on two feet, and have opposable thumbs. However, humans are still animals, as much as we refuse to call ourselves that. With the title of “animal” comes the mandatory animalistic behaviors.

If you’ve ever seen a middle schooler do a mating dance, you know exactly what I’m talking about. I’m sure she was thinking, “If I dance well, I’ll impress my prospective mates”, but that didn’t work out very well in her favor. This is just one example of mating behavior (which was a surprisingly large portion of the behavior I observed). Mating behavior in humans is actually remarkably similar to that of peacocks and other animals: one organism attempts to impress a potential mate in order to increase their chances of producing offspring.

Then, of course, we have vocalizing. When you grunt at your friends in recognition, whine, or squeal, you might not think of it as an animal behavior. Yet, animals make such noises in order to communicate with others of their species, whether it be for warning them, mating, or having a conversation. Our languages can also be considered similar to the barking of dogs or the trumpeting of elephants.

There’s always been a general rule: girls go to the bathroom in groups. While this often becomes the butt of jokes, there is a reason for this. Traveling in groups is deemed safer than traveling individually. So, when there are seven girls crammed into a two-stall bathroom, there’s actually an instinctual reason for that. It can be compared with a pack of wolves, a pod of whales, or a murder of crows. Members of a group depend on each other for safety and camaraderie.

Looking at life scientifically definitely puts a different spin on things, as my teacher promised. In relation to other living creatures, humans are just as animalistic. Nonetheless, this just serves to emphasize that we are not as special and fantastically superior as we would like to think. Gain some perspective. Think of the big picture. Maybe you’ll see yourself in a whole different light.