• Question: how does instinct evolve?

    Asked by giraffeee2 to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 21 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi girafeee. Instincts evolve because they are selected for – ie. they make the animal who has them more likely to survive and reproduce. A mouse’s instinct to run away from a cat, for example, helps the mice who have the instinct to survive. Incidentally, that instinctive behaviour has a lot to do with smell. Mice smell the cats and run. Mice who can’t smell the cat don’t run, even if they can see it.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi that sounds like a great question but sadly not for me!! I have no idea – mightn’t it be difficult to define what instinct is???

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Giraffeee

      I could give you the prize for the most difficult question! Instinct is such a difficult thing to understand and define, and to then explain how it evolves is frankly beyond me. Instinct must evolve as species evolve, but I’m not aware of any scientists who have really investigated this.

    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi giraffee,
      Instinct is a sort of “built-in” knowlege about what to do in certain circumstances. It’s a bit of a mystery as to how this evolved but it must have something to do with the biochemistry and genetic makeup of the organism. Simple fact is, animals that react in certian ways are more successful than those which don’t.
      Eoin

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 21 Mar 2011:

      An instinct is a behaviour in a given organism that does not require prior learning or knowledge to perform. The best example in humans is the reflex. You don’t have to learn to pull your hand away from a hot object and the behaviour doesn’t go through the brain so it is almost instantaneous. These evolved we think to keep organisms out of danger, and natural selection results in animals that don’t have these behaviours dying before they have had a chance to reproduce and pass on their genes. Only animals therefore that have instincts live long enough to pass them on to offspring through their genes.

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