ABSTRACT
The developmental timetable for monkeys is a bit slower, but even before they are normally mobile one can see in their behavior the shadow of coming events. Much innate behavior seems to be nature's way of giving the organism a start, a pattern of action upon which change can capitalize. In animals which depend a great deal on visual cues to guide behavior, an innate action pattern which helps to prevent falling is not triggered until the animal is mobile enough to fall into a hole and its visual development is such that the eyes can warn of danger. Irenaus Eibl-Eibesfeldt, the ethologist, has closely studied the inherited versus the learned behavior of red squirrels. As living creatures ascend the evolutionary ladder, the amount of their behavior that is controlled by fixed—that is, inherited and un-modifiable—action patterns is broken down into smaller and smaller units.
