So one of the key plot devices of the Animorphs is the ability to 'acquire' the DNA of any animal and morph into that animal for a maximum of approximately two consecutive hours. It's a neat ability, but one about which I often think about how, realistically, it would work.
One of the things that I don't think is covered in any explanation of how morphing works is animal learning. That's because, when an animal is acquired, it's only the genetic material that's received. Any memories and knowledge due to the animal's personal experiences is not retained by the morph. This means that, for example, if you were to morph another human (which happens in the series), you wouldn't acquire any of their memories. You also wouldn't acquire any of their skills. They speak a language you don't? Know how to play a musical instrument you've never touched? Olympic Champion ice skater? None of that knowledge gets transferred to the person doing the morph.
This is about to get worse. Because as might be implied by the Olympic champion ice-skater example, physical abilities require mental exertion along with physical exertion. So even if your body has the physical capacity to perform an action, you can only perform that action if you also have the knowledge of how to do so. Even for relatively mundane things like walking, how to make certain sounds (the most basic fundamentals of language), how to open a jar or hold a pen or pencil. As infants and young children, humans learn how to do these things. This is what's called procedural memory. These things can only be learned by actually doing them because of the unconscious component in how they work. It's not enough to have a body that's capable of performing an action if the mind doesn't have the knowledge to do so. That's why people who have suffered strokes might not walk or otherwise move as well as they used to--the procedural memory for their basic motor skills has been damaged. That's also why it's sometimes possible for stroke victims to regain these abilities; they've relearned the lost skills.
Well, the same thing is true in other animals. Tigers, bears, birds, gorillas and many other animals all improve their motor skills as they age, as well as their knowledge of how to perform essential actions (like obtain food). Many start out with only very rudimentary abilities in these areas and gradually improve those abilities as time goes on. Some of them even require considerable parental care in order to learn the things they need to know. Therefore instinct doesn't at all explain how the Animorphs could possibly do things like run, fly, fight, or hunt in bodies they don't have that procedural knowledge for. We can assume that if they morph another human, they can usually get by using their own procedural knowledge because the body is probably similar enough to apply it (though perhaps not always even then!). But animals aren't similar enough to humans for that procedural knowledge to apply. Moving normally on four legs is doubtless a different process from moving normally on two. Flying is definitely a different process, and birds often go through a learning process while still under parental care to figure out how to fly.
Competent fighting is definitely not something most animals would have instinctual knowledge of, since there's not only an element of motor skills necessary, but also strategy, which, even if you actually know how to perform a similar action as a human, is still going to require different considerations in an animal body. It's one reason why a lot of animals engage in play--to learn how to flee or fight. As we can assume that none of the Animorphs are prize fighters or have any military training, they probably don't even have these abilities in their own bodies. Even if they knew how to throw a punch or two, it would only be in retaliation against, like, another middle schooler.
That's different than an adult trying to kill you. It's even more different from an alien military using super advanced tech trying to kill you.
None of this affects my enjoyment of this series, of course, which doesn't claim to be any sort of hard sci-fi. I just like to think about how sci-fi science compares to real science.
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