Final answer:
Inclusive fitness is the reproductive success of close relatives, encompassing not only an individual's direct reproductive success but also the success obtained through supporting the reproduction of genetically related individuals.
Step-by-step explanation:
According to behavioral ecologists, inclusive fitness is c. The reproductive success of close relatives. This concept extends beyond an individual's reproductive success, including the shared genetic success achieved by aiding the reproduction of close relatives. Inclusive fitness explains behaviors such as altruism among relatives, where an individual may improve its inclusive fitness by helping relatives who share a proportion of their genes, despite not producing offspring directly. Relative fitness is another concept related to evolutionary success and refers to an individual's ability to survive and reproduce relative to the rest of the population. This does not just consider the number of offspring an organism produces, but also factors such as the presence or absence of parental care, lifespan of reproductive ability, and offspring survival rates. Fitness in the context of evolution by natural selection is essentially about the relative ability of an organism to survive and produce fertile offspring.