: How does the behavior help the animal survive and reproduce?
A cat that stops jumping onto high counters may not be "getting old"—it likely has Metabolic Clues:
With the animal finally relaxed, Aris moved in. He didn't loom; he stayed low. His hands, practiced and steady, checked the inflamed paw. It was an embedded foxtail—a simple physical ailment, but one that required a surgical steady hand and an even steadier understanding of the mind behind the teeth.
: Innate behaviors that an animal is born with and performs without learning (e.g., a spider spinning a web).