What is instinct?

• A. Inborn behavior
• B. Learned through training
• C. Random movement
• D. Response to hunger

Answer: (A)

Instinct is an inborn pattern of behavior that animals are born with. It doesn’t require learning and is wired by genetics to guide actions in familiar or important situations, often helping with survival and reproduction. Because these behaviors are innate, young animals can show them without practice—for example, seeking the mother’s teat to nurse or following a protective maternal response, and other species-specific activities like nest building or mating displays. These automatic patterns contrast with behaviors learned through training, which come from experience; and they aren’t just random movements or simple responses to hunger, which is a physiological drive rather than a fixed, inherited behavior.