Are Humans Just Animals?

I know a lot about biology. I am familiar with taxonomy and comparative anatomy. Evolutionary theory sounds very reasonable in general especially when one sees the progressive relationship of various branches of the animal kingdom and when one studies fossil history. But some things about the concept of humans being simply just another animal with a bigger brain, a development in the chain of primates, puzzle me.

Humans protect themselves from the elements by devising clothing and constructing shelters. Are those developments simply adaptations to new environments? But don't all humans adapt some sort of clothing and construct some sort of shelters. Where is the perfect environment for humans that allow them to live without clothing or shelter like other animals?

And if humans adapt to new environments by making clothing and shelter why don't the smarter animals do the same, at least on a primitive level. If hominids adapted to their environment by these means where are the great apes that do at least a little bit of the same to adapt to a new environment where it might be safer or where more food might be available. Why are animals so enslaved to their inherited behavior that they never seem to want to make themselves a little warmer or a little more protected.

And why do humans cook their food? Is is simply an evolutionary adaptation to availability of different types of food in different environments? But other animals eat their meat warm from the kill and their grains right off the husk. Other animals are omnivorous but don't need food preparation. Certainly other smarter animals after millions of years have been exposed to meat cooked by accidental fires and yet they don't try to reproduce the finding.

In general why is human behavior so variable while animals keep doing the same thing over and over from one generation to another for millions of years.

There are many other similar questions but these suffice. Anybody have answers?