What is the ethology of animals? What does science study ethology?

What is ethology? It is a science that studies the behavior of animals. In order to investigate a particular species, it is necessary to observe it in a natural setting. However, in order to study the principles underlying the observed behavior, external intervention is sometimes necessary. Ethology helps to explain the complex interactions between naturally coded inborn behavior and the environment.

Origin of ethology as a science

At the beginning of the 20th century, the behavior of animals was studied mainly through laboratory experiments. This empirical approach has led to many great discoveries, such as the law of effect and behaviourism. Ethology became a respectable discipline several decades later, when European behaviorists (ethologists) Dr. Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen presented such crucial discoveries as imprinting, critical periods of development, trigger mechanisms of behavior, fixed complexes of actions, behavioral disks and the concept of repression of behavior.

Lorenz and Tinbergen, along with a fan of bee behavior, Carl von Frisch, shared the Nobel Prize in 1973 for their contribution to the study of animal behavior. Although some details of their theories were subsequently discussed and changed, the fundamental principles remained the same. Behaviorism and ethology are two different ways of studying animal behavior; One is limited mainly to laboratory research (behaviorism), and the other is based on field research (animal ethology). The results of the studies of both sciences make it possible to give a clearer idea of the behavior of animals.

The question of what ethology is, such prominent scientists of the late 19th and early 20th century, as Charles Darwin, O. Whitman, Wallace Craig and others, were engaged in. Behaviorism is a term that also describes the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, but it usually refers to the study of prepared behavioral responses in the laboratory and without particular emphasis on evolutionary adaptability. Many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behavior throughout human history.

Science ethology

What is ethology? This is a subsection of biology, which studies the behavior of animals or humans. Typically, ethologists observe animals in their natural habitat, they study the typical behavior and conditions that affect this behavior. Typical behavior are habits characteristic of members of a particular species. More complex than a reflex is a kind of innate trigger triggered by the action of certain stimuli.

Understanding the ethology or behavior of animals can be an important element in the training of animals. The study of natural patterns of behavior in different species or breeds allows the trainer to select those representatives who are better suited to perform the required tasks. It also allows the coach to properly stimulate natural behavior and prevent unwanted ones.

Typically, ethologists try to answer four basic questions about the forms of behavior:

1. What is the cause and incentive for this model of behavior.
2. What structures and functions of the animal are involved in behavior.
3. How and why the behavior of the animal changes with its development.
4. How does behavior affect the fitness and adaptation of the animal.

The concept of ethology

The ethology of animals as a concept has existed since 1762, when it was defined in France as a study of animal behavior. In this sense, it carries the same meaning as the Greek word "ethos", from which the modern term of ethology is derived. However, the independent meaning of the word ethology is associated with the term "ethics" and is used in the Anglo-Saxon literature as a "science of character". The founder of modern ethology is the doctor and zoologist Konrad Lorenz. By the systematic application of biological methods of research, he analyzed the behavior of animals.

The first modern ethology textbook on the study of instinct was written in 1951 by Nikolas Tinbergen. Observations of a number of ancestors of ethology as a science, including Spalding (1873), Darwin (1872), Whitman (1898), Altuma (1868) and Craig (1918) awaken a scientific interest in the behavior of animals. What became ethology, as well as the subject of its study, began to pay increased attention. This science began to be considered an independent branch of zoology already in 1910. In modern terms, ethology is engaged in scientific study of animal behavior, as well as certain aspects of human behavior. The term "animal psychology" is still sometimes used, but purely in a historical context.

Different models of animal behavior: learning

Ethology studies various models of behavior of animals, which are then classified and compared with models of behavior of other species, especially closely related. It is important that animals be monitored in their natural or near natural habitat. Additional observations in captivity are also often necessary.

Although learning is considered very important in animal behavior, one of the main objectives of ethology is to study innate patterns of behavior that are common to all members of the same species. After studying these models, you can begin to consider changes in behavior caused by training. This is important, because not every change in the form or effectiveness of one pattern of behavior during the life of an individual involves learning as a form of gaining experience.

Examples of animal behavior

Behavior of animals includes a variety of actions. You can give an example: an elephant watering a zebra near a pond. Why is he doing this? Is it a game or a gesture of goodwill? In fact, sprinkling a zebra is not a friendly gesture at all. The elephant simply tries to keep the zebra away from the watering hole. Examples of animal behavior can be given a huge amount, for example, when the dog sits down on command, or a cat that tries to catch a mouse. Behavior of animals includes all ways of interacting with each other and the environment.

Ripening of instincts and genetics

Already in 1760, Hermann Samuel Reimarus, a professor in Hamburg, opened the notion of "maturation of instincts" to the world and pointed out the difference between inborn and acquired skills. Inborn skills, for example, the search for food or the understanding of the dance language of bees are present from the moment of birth. In order to successfully adapt, the animal must have at its disposal information about the environment. This information can be embedded in chromosomes or stored in memory, that is, it can be congenital or acquired. In complex models of behavior, there is often an interaction between both elements.

An investigation of the genetic basis of behavior is an important part of ethology. For example, crossing two kinds of ducks that differ in forms of courtship during the mating season can generate hybrids with completely different patterns of behavior during this period, different from the parent ones, but present in the behavior of the common alleged ancestors of this species. However, it is still not clear what physiological causes are responsible for these differences.

Nature against education: the evolution of animal behavior

Ethology, the science of animal behavior, as a rule, emphasizes behavior in the natural environment and treats behavior as an evolutionary-adaptive feature. If animal behavior is controlled by genes, they can evolve through natural selection. The basic models of behavior are caused by genes, the rest - life experience in a certain environment. The question, whether behavior is controlled mainly by genes or the environment, is often the subject of discussion. Behavioral habits are defined both by nature (genes) and by upbringing (environment).

In dogs, for example, the tendency to behave in a certain way towards other dogs may be controlled by genes. However, normal behavior can not develop in an environment where there are no other dogs. A puppy who grew up in isolation may be afraid of other dogs or act aggressively towards them. In the natural environment, behavioral types also develop, as they clearly increase the fitness of animals that adhere to them. For example, when wolves hunt together, in the flock the opportunity to catch prey increases significantly. Thus, the wolf appears more likely to survive and pass on its genes to the next generation.

The causes of behavior include all the stimuli that affect behavior, whether external (food or predators) or internal (hormones or changes in the nervous system). The goal of a behavioral response is to directly influence the behavior of another animal, for example, attracting a partner for mating. The development of behavior is associated with phenomena or influences through which behavior changes during the life of the animal. Evolution of behavior is related to the origins of behavior and how they change with the change of generations.