Key points
Animal behavior includes all the ways animals interact with other organisms and the physical environment.
Behavior can also be defined as a change in the activity of an organism in response to a stimulus, an external or internal cue or combo of cues.
To fully understand a behavior, we want to know what causes it, how it develops in an individual, how it benefits an organism, and how it evolved.
Some behaviors are innate, or genetically hardwired, while others are learned, or developed through experience. In many cases, behaviors have both an innate component and a learned component.
Behavior is shaped by natural selection. Many behaviors directly increase an organism's fitness, that is, they help it survive and reproduce.
