Question

Behaviors are diverse and important for survival and reproduction. Some behaviors are learned, such as the species-specific song of a yellow warbler which is different from the song of a blue-winged warbler. Other behaviors are innate, such as a female cat in heat urinating more often and in many places to attract a mate or honeybees do a "dance" that indicates the distance and direction of a food source when they return to their hive. Which of the following statements supports the idea that behaviors are important in survival and therefore affect natural selection?

innate behaviors
evolution
the first explanation is proximate causation

Answer 1

Animal behaviors, such as innate instincts and learned behaviors, significantly impact survival and reproduction, contributing to an organism's fitness and influencing evolution by natural selection.

Step-by-step explanation:

Behaviors in animals, whether innate or learned, play a critical role in their survival and reproduction. Innate behaviors, such as the waggle dance of the honeybee to communicate the location of food, are genetically hardwired and not influenced by the environment. These instinctual behaviors ensure that important activities necessary for survival or reproduction are performed correctly without the need for learning, which could result in errors that jeopardize the animal's fitness.

On the other hand, learned behaviors are shaped by environmental conditions and can be adapted to changes in the environment. This flexibility can be advantageous, but it also involves the risk that the behavior may not be appropriate in certain situations. Nonetheless, both types of behaviors contribute to an animal's fitness, and those that increase an organism's chances of survival and reproduction can become more prevalent in a population through the process of evolution by natural selection.

Answer 2

A). Innate behaviors.

Step-by-step explanation:

As per the question, the 'innate behaviors' support the idea that behaviors play a significant role in the survival and thereby, influence the natural selection. Innate behaviors are elucidated as the inborn ability of an organism to display a particular behavioral response to a specific stimulus. Since these behaviors are genetically inherited and therefore, inflexible; it assists the animals in surviving as they may or may not be exposed to an environment through which they can learn a particular behavior. But these 'inherited' abilities allow them to survive and select naturally even without training or experience(as required in case of learned behavior). Thus, option A is the correct answer.