Do universities like to see improvement or consistency?

I’m just starting IB after finishing with my IGCSE’s, and am very determined to get great results this year, however I didn’t do the best in my IGCSE’s and i worry that will effect my chances of getting into the universities i want. I am planning on studying zoology or animal behaviour at uni for my undergraduate degree, and I am looking at Exeter, st. Andrews, Manchester and Bristol, and a few more. I got and A in bio and environmental management, b in both English lit and lang, and the rest- extended maths, chemistry, history, art and Spanish were all C’s. I’m redoing my maths exam in November to get a B or above, because its a requirement of a lot of the universities im looking at, but otherwise I’ve met all their requirements for IGCSE’s.

I am going to try to meet the 36-38 points i need and all 6’s in my HL subjects (bio,maths,art), as well as try to do well in the other three SL subjects.

I know there are a lot of other factors involved when these universities make their decisions, but do you think my not so great results in IGSCE’s will bring my application down even if they technically meet the requirements? Or that they will like seeing the improvement (if I hypothetically got amazing grades in IB)

Most unis don't pay an awful lot of attention to GCSEs / IGCSEs, as long as you meet the requirements.

Bristol, which you've mentioned. is unusual in being very explicit about how they use them - and it varies by course. See their Zoology Admissions Statement, here, which says, "Applications are scored and ranked based on their academic record, according to their achieved or predicted results with the following weightings: GCSE 20% | A-Level 80%". So they do look at your GCSE profile, but it doesn't have a lot of weight in their admissions process. It does mean you would be out-scored by someone with same predicted A level / IB grades as you but better GCSEs / IGCSEs.

The other unis in your list don't publish the way they use GCSEs / IGCSEs (beyond the basic entry requirements), as far as I'm aware.