I think at a certain point (the point where our social and tool complexity begins to increase from generation to generation without bound) we have grounds to point out a qualitative, as well as a quantitative difference.
Wolves may be intelligent animals, but I don't anticipate wolf packs ever developing anything more than other wolf packs on significant timescales. Ditto with chimpanzee tribes - they may have hands, but they're a long way from having the same kind of technological build-up that humans had. First they would need a language of some bare minimum complexity. Then they would need to pass it on.
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