The urge to survive remains strong in every living organism. In case you have any doubts, take ten seconds to watch this slime mold, Physarum polycephalum, solve a maze in a single pass, in order to get to food.
This particular mold is a large cell, visible by the naked eye, which exhibits sophisticated foraging behavior despite its apparent simplicity.
In the center of the maze sits an oat flake which the slime mold is able to arrive at, without exploring all possible solutions to the maze, by detecting a gradient of chemo-attractors. There are human children who would struggle with a maze of this relative complexity, demonstrating that survival is indeed a very strong instinct, even in apparently the most simple forms of life.
Citation: Adamatzky A, (2011). ‘Slime Mould Solves Maze in One Pass … Assisted by Gradient of
Chemo-attractants’ IEEE Trans on NanoBioscience Volume: 11 , Issue: 2, 2012, Page(s): 131 – 134 arXiv: 1108.4956v1