How does the animal mind work?

When we see animal behavior it is difficult not to see it in human terms, but we must remind ourselves that, with a handful of possible exceptions, animals do not have consciousness.

For example, when a male lion takes over a pride, the first thing it does is to kill all the cubs. As cruel as this may seem, from a “selfish gene” point of view this makes perfect sense. But what, if anything, is the lion thinking? Is it just instinct? And even harder to understand is that the lionesses will try to hide their cubs from the male. Is this purely instinctive? Do they in some sense know what the lion is trying to do?

And what about humans? We pride ourselves on our superior brains, but we have instinctive impulses and emotions that must somehow combine with our conscious behavior? For example, although there are many exceptions, there is a tendency for people to prefer their children to step-children. I can point to several instances of this among my relatives. And in all cases there were good “reasons” for the preference. I doubt that anyone consciously thought about the fact that one child was carrying their genes and the other was not.

I ask this more to share my bewilderment than to expect an answer. Our ability to reason and solve problems is quite extraordinary, but just as amazing is the complexity of non-conscious behavior and emotion and how these can tie into our conscious minds.