u/Ok-Issue-7380

so foxes retrace their exact steps backwards when being chased then jump sideways so the predator loses the trail right. but how did the first fox ever figure this out. because the thing is this only works if you do it for like hundreds of steps, doing it for a few steps does nothing the predator can still see you. so how does gradual evolution even explain this because half the behavior is pointless. there had to be a first fox that did the whole thing start to finish for it to even work. how does that happen

so foxes retrace their exact steps backwards when being chased then jump sideways so the predator loses the trail right. but how did the first fox ever figure this out. because the thing is this only works if you do it for like hundreds of steps, doing it for a few steps does nothing the predator can still see you. so how does gradual evolution even explain this because half the behavior is pointless. there had to be a first fox that did the whole thing start to finish for it to even work. how does that happen