Once established, are behavioral patterns set in stone?

Figure 3: While animals prefer familiar to unfamiliar situations, for example, foods, habitats, and companions, all creatures are interrelated facets of systems - climate, soils, plants, animals, people - that change constantly. Change requires that each component of the system continually adapt. When environments become inadequate due to such changes, individuals must engage in new behaviors, which in time become familiar provided the consequences are positive. While behaviors early in life have a particularly strong influence on the behavior of adults, the behavior of individuals can change at any age as the consequences that result from their behaviors change.

Behavior by consequences enables animals to adapt, and it generates amazing complexity when genomes interact with dynamic social and biophysical environments. How readily individuals change their behaviors depends on how quickly they tire - satiate - of the familiar. Satiety encourages animals to move toward the boundary between the familiar and the unfamiliar. Individuals who satiate quickly eagerly explore the unfamiliar, while those who don't are reluctant to explore the unknown (see BEHAVE booklet, page 23). How readily individuals change behaviors also depends on the adequacy of social and biophysical environments relative to needs. As adequacy declines, animals must engage in new behaviors such as seeking unfamiliar foods and surroundings (see BEHAVE booklet, page 29). If the consequences of new behaviors are positive, they are likely to be repeated until they become familiar.