> Huh. That's interesting food for thought.
>
> I'm still wondering how the instinct got there,
>though, but I think you removed the "why".

But she did answer that question. It got there like everything else got there. Natural selection. Random changes brought about by mutations. If the change happens to be beneficial to the ogranisms survival, then it tends to get perpetuated to the next generation. The tiny proto-mammal who had the urge to run away at the approach of a predator lived long enough to reproduce, while other members of his species who did not have this instinct died and did not spread their genes effectively. You quickly weed out the "no self-preservation instinct" organisms this way.

-- Dave