Someone asked this question on Reddit. They continued:

Especially compared to evolution of other living organisms, learning about how WE originated as a species…then to a civilization, is nothing short of amazing.

Here’s my response (links added):

Your question gets at a deep truth about what makes humans so different from all other animals. I think the answers referring to ‘anthropic bias’ are wrong. Humans don’t just seem the most interesting to humans because they are humans.

Humans objectively are the most interesting species because, unlike all other species, we are not predetermined by our biology.

In addition to biological evolution, there’s more evolution happening inside our minds during our lifetime. This evolution is one of ideas rather than genes, and it gives us creativity: the ability to come up with novel solutions to problems. All the other uniquely human problems and characteristics – free will, morals, even sentience – follow from that.

Creativity, not biological evolution, is responsible for the civilization you mention. No other animal has creativity. No other animal can make movies, write poems, create spacecraft. No other animal has laws, philosophy, math, etc. So there just isn’t as much to find fascinating about other animals. Animals are still interesting, and I’ve studied them a bunch, but they can’t hold a candle to humans.

Animals don’t even really have individuality within their species. They’re mostly replaceable. Some pets have quirky idiosyncrasies, and you can train some animals to behave differently from their peers, but in terms of knowledge, members of the same species (more or less by definition) don’t differ much if at all. Every single human, on the other hand, is a priceless and irreplaceable individual. Studying the lifetime of a single human being is usually just as interesting as, if not more interesting than, studying the evolutionary history of virtually any non-human species. I’d rather read about Einstein’s or Steve Jobs’ life than study the evolutionary history of wasps.