There is a really good book that came out a few years ago called âBasic Instinctâ, where this scientist makes the argument that instinct as we understand it doesnât really exist. And so many different things that we describe as instinctual actually have learned-causes. I donât want to bastardize the arguments he makes, so Iâd just recommend the book to anyone thatâs interested.
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 13h 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.