Those are awfully complex structures, I couldn’t make one!
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Generally speaking, there are two primary drivers for animal behaviours: their genes, and their environment. How important either of these factors are for explaining any particular behaviour is a subject of much research and debate.
**Genetics**: Core programming or instinct that can become surprisingly complex stored in their DNA passed down through the generations.
The animal elicits a particular behaviour under certain conditions. They shiver when cold, pant when hot, startle when they hear a loud noise etc. These core behaviours evolved to increase in complexity. For example, one species survived more when their startle response triggered them to run away from the noise immediately (deer), while others survived more by freezing perfectly still (rabbits), while others still just leap back out of range of the perceived danger (cats). Evolved genetic behaviours can become surprisingly complex over many many generations. Spiders web building for example (even though its simpler than it looks) in which they create giant concentric circles that get smaller each pass. They just feel an urge to do something and don’t necessarily know why (think hormones). But even this complex behaviour started simple (perhaps by using silk to hang from things or rope slow prey they already caught in) and evolved into what we see today.
**Environment**: Things learned over time based on their experiences.
Cold animals feel that their siblings/parents are warm and huddle up to them, hot animals feel the suns heat and try to hide from it in the shade etc. These can also be taught by parents. Beavers and birds are born and grow up in a dam/nest and so learn that=home. When they are forced to move out they know they now need a home of their own. They are taught the basics by their parents like how and where to find the building materials.
This is where the debate comes into play. A bird never actually sees it’s parents building the nest they grew up in. How do they know how to build it? They start simple. Pick up a twig and place it in a spot that looks similar to where their first nest was. Does it look like the old nest? No? Better go get another twig… repeat until it looks/instinctively feels right.
In the case of Beavers they will start placing sticks in areas of shallow water as a bed/hole to sleep in like they used to. However, they instinctively know to block running water by placing sticks where they hear leaks. Research scientists did a study where they placed a speaker playing the sound of trickling water near a beaver’s dam. The beaver buried the speaker in sticks every time.
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