In meaningful human time, we can breed different types of dogs with different instincts. Sheepdogs with an instinct to round up animals, Pointers with an instince to point, Retrievers with an instinct to retrieve. Instincts that they were born with. Instincts that are inheritable. Instincts that are genetic. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2253978/
And MS, I've noticed you're confused by poetically descriptive language. We know the little eel isn't taking all of the factors described into consideration. They are just selection pressures that led to the eel instinctively returning to its spawning grounds to mate. Eel behavior is almost entirely instinctive; they do what their genes have programmed them to do. That an eel comes with what it needs to find is not fundamentally more mysterious than the fact that a dog can be bred to point at quail.
And MS, I've noticed you're confused by poetically descriptive language. We know the little eel isn't taking all of the factors described into consideration. They are just selection pressures that led to the eel instinctively returning to its spawning grounds to mate. Eel behavior is almost entirely instinctive; they do what their genes have programmed them to do. That an eel comes with what it needs to find is not fundamentally more mysterious than the fact that a dog can be bred to point at quail.
