Are humans special in that they collapse wave functions? First of all, I don't really believe that humans are special. So I know the answer must be that they are not.
But the way quantum mechanics is described is that all particles exist as clouds when humans are not looking but exist as particles when humans look at them. How is this consistent with the fact that humans are not special (I mean..humans are made of the same particles, so it's not like they can do anything special)?
 A: 
that all particles exist as clouds

This is a miss-representation of the mathematics that describes quantum mechanically elementary particles and their composites.
Look at the orbitals of the hydrogen atom:

If one is not careful to understand the postulates and mathematics of quantum mechanics one ends up with particles as clouds, because of the above pictures.
What the image conveys is that each point is a probable point for findng an electron if one studies an excited hydrogen atom. Quantum mechanics predicts probabilities to find a particle at (x,y,z,t), not trajectories or orbits.

when humans are not looking but exist as particles when humans look at them

Any interaction with a particle "finds it", according to the probabilities that its wavefunction $Ψ$  dictates. The probability is calculated by $Ψ^*Ψ$, and particles interact with other particles according to the theory. So humans are not necessary as observers to get interactions and "collapse" the wavefunction into another wavefunction (that is what collapse means, different conditions impose different wavefunctions).
A: What is really meant by an observer in quantum mechanics is not an actual conscious human, but a macroscopic object, contact with which causes collapse of the wave function. That is, the collapse is supposed to occur, even if there are no human observing it - in fact, this happens most of the time, since even in a lab, the collapse of a wave function is caused by the equipment, sandwiched between the human and the microscopic object being studied. This leaves open the question of whether a falling tree makes a sound, if there are no humans to hear it... but this is already philosophy rather than physics.
To summarized: from the point of view of physics, humans are not special.
