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• 5th Grade Home
• Hand It to My Parents!
• Meet the Family...
• What's Your Name ...
  Who's Your Mamma?
• Instinct or Environment!
• Like Mother ... Like Plant
• Survival of the Specialist
• Footnotes
• Changing Addresses
• Gefilte Fish - No "Build a Fish"
• Science Language

Parent and Offspring - Instinct or Environment?

Many traits are inherited from parents. Some traits are not. Some traits are learned.

Do you know a dog that knows how to beg? Did the dog inherit that trait? Or did the dog learn the trait? Dogs learn tricks, like begging, shaking hands or playing dead. Doing tricks is a learned trait, not an inherited trait.

Do you know how to ride a bike? Riding a bicycle is a learned trait, NOT an inherited trait. You were not born knowing how to ride a bike.

Some traits are instinct. Instinct is something that a species does naturally. It is NOT learned. For example, salmon leave the ocean and returns to rivers and swim up them to lay their eggs. They do not learn to do this. They do it naturally.

Some traits occur because of the environment. Environment is the surroundings in which you live. Organisms develope some traits because of their environment.

A 5^th grader living in the Andes Mountains of Peru may have a larger lung capacity than a 5^th grader living near sea level in southern California.  To adapt to the high altitudes, people living at higher altitudes often have larger lung capacities than those who live at lower altitudes.

Think about it!
Look at the tree in the picture below. What caused it to grow sideways instead of straight up? Growing sideways is NOT an inherited trait in this tree. It is not learned. It is not instinct. It grows sideways because of its environment. The wind blows constantly where it lives. The wind caused the tree to grow sideways.

Look closely at the tree above. What traits does this plant have? As you observe it, you should be able to find at least three characteristics that help it survive near the Grand Canyon.

Quick review:
Can you determine which of the below behaviors are learned as which behaviors are instinct?

Remember that an instinct is a behavior with which an organism is born. A learned behavior helps the organism to be successful in the environment.

Select your answer for each of the following.

1. A cat purrs. Choose your answer Instinct Learned
2. A tree bends in the direction that the wind blows. Choose your answer Instinct Learned
3. A parrot talks. Choose your answer Instinct Learned
4. Birds migrate south in the winter Choose your answer Instinct Learned
5. A child speaks Spanish Choose your answer Instinct Learned
6. Lizards sun themselves on rocks Choose your answer Instinct Learned
7. Dogs like to eat meat Choose your answer Instinct Learned
8. A chicken rings a bell for seed Choose your answer Instinct Learned
9. Squirrels store food for winter. Choose your answer Instinct Learned
10. Beavers build dams. Choose your answer Instinct Learned

Check your answers by highlighting the box below.