Evolutionary biologist Hopi Hoekstra and colleagues have hypothesized that the burrow-digging behavior of mice (and the resulting shape of their underground burrows) is heritable—innate and not learned. Design an experiment to test this hypothesis.

Video transcript

Hi everyone. Here's our next question. Which of the following is not a learned animal behavior. Well, let's recall that a learned behavior is one that requires acquisition or modification as a result of experience and that would be versus innate behavior, behavior that an individual is born with and that's generally genetically programmed doesn't need to be learned. Um I one general sort of principle is that in general things that will be needed in infancy would be an eight because obviously an infant hasn't had time to learn those behaviors. So let's look through our answer choices here. Choice A. Is a dog fetching a ball. Well that would be learned behavior the dog learns and then increases its ability by experiencing chasing and catching a ball and bringing it back. Choice B. Is riding a bicycle. Well, that's pretty obviously learned behavior. Choice C. Is the sucking reflex in young mammals. Well, again, we talked about that in eight behaviors are more likely to be behaviors needed infancy. Um Young mammals need to be able to suckle from birth to be able to obtain their food. So choice see the suckling reflects in young mammals is not learned. It's an innate behavior enjoys. D. Is playing table tennis. Again, pretty easy to identify that one as a learned behavior. So which is not a learned animal behavior. Choice C suckling reflex and young mammals. See you in the next video