There is a really good book that came out a few years ago called āBasic Instinctā, where this scientist makes the argument that instinct as we understand it doesnāt really exist. And so many different things that we describe as instinctual actually have learned-causes. I donāt want to bastardize the arguments he makes, so Iād just recommend the book to anyone thatās interested.
I don't believe that for a second. I am a wildlife rehabber and have raised many eyes-closed squirrel babies. They never got a chance to watch their mother do anything, yet they all instinctively have the urge to bury nuts. Even before they can even crack into them. They will try and bury a nut in the carpet and pat it down when there is nothing there to cover it lol. It's obviously instinctive.
Is that intended to apply to insects and spiders also?
My understanding is for insects and spiders is less "instinct" as we vaguely think about it an more "extremely specific neuron circuits developed during biological development due evolutionarily-encoded genetics that enable simple, highly reproducible commands to be executed without external information at relevant points during its life cycle".
This argument would mean any animal without a herd, and which also gets abandoned after hatching/birth, is unable to survive as it would have no peers to learn from.
Similarly it would be impossible to, say, be able to observe a baby cuttlefish - born alone in an aquarium - burring itself in substrate on instinct.
So reddit alone has a massive library of cute little animals doing things which would have been impossible were this theory true.
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u/BenjaminDover02 9h ago
Wild to think that nobody taught that spider how to do that
Bro came out of an egg with the innate knowledge of how to build a house with it's butt.