WHAT DOES ETHOLOGY STUDY? - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

The ethology studies the behavior of animals from a scientific perspective. The word ethology is derived from the Greek words "ethos" which means character and "logos" which means speech or rationale.

In this way, ethology studies the character and rationale of species within their natural environment (Encyclopedia, 2017). Ethology helps explain the complicated interplay between the innate codes of nature and the environment.

Sometimes, even, ethology uses tools to alter the environment to show certain behaviors of animals. During the first half of the 20th century, animal behavior was studied mainly within laboratory experiments.

This empirical approach led to numerous important discoveries, such as Thorndyke's law of effect and Skinner's behaviorism, focused primarily on the theory of positive and negative reinforcement and operant behaviors.

Ethology became a respected discipline at the end of the last century, when the behavioralists or ethologists Konrad Lorenz and Niko Tinbergen made discoveries of great importance for the scientific world.

For example, critical developmental periods, behavior releasers, fixed action patterns, behavioral urges, and the concept of displacement behaviors (Britannica, 2017).

Behaviorism and ethology are two different ways of studying animal behavior. Behaviorism takes place in a laboratory, while ethology is based on field studies.

Each discipline yields different data, but if they are combined, the patterns of animal behavior can be more fully understood (Greenberg, 2010).

Key concepts of ethology

1- Behavior is an adaptive response to natural selection

Since ethology is understood as a branch of biology, ethologists have presented a particular concern for the evolution of behavior. In this sense, behavior can be read from natural selection.

It is valid to affirm that the first ethologist was Charles Darwin and that his book The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals published in 1872, has influenced the work of numerous ethologists.

This is how Darwin's pupil, George Romanes, became one of the founders of comparative psychology, proposing a similarity in cognitive processes and mechanisms between animals and human beings (Lorenz, 1978).

It should be clarified that this concept is purely speculative, since it is impossible to determine the behavior of a species from the analysis of a fossil, therefore, this behavior cannot be traced at different evolutionary levels.

Thus, all concrete evidence of this approach is limited to micro evolution, which is the evolution that takes place at the level of existing species.

The evidence of the direct changes exerted by natural selection at the macro-evolutionary level implies the extrapolation of the phenomena that take place at the micro-evolutionary level.

In this way, some scientists allude to particular behaviors of certain species as if they had evolved in response to a process of natural selection within the conditions of a specific environment (Dodman, 2015).

2- Animals use defined communication patterns

A defined communication pattern is a sequence of instinctual behaviors that occurs within a neurological network and occurs in response to an external sensory stimulus called a "liberating stimulus."

Once this stimulus is identified by ethologists, they can compare the communication patterns between species, contrasting similarities and differences.

An example of a definite communication pattern is the dance that honey bees use to recruit members of the colony and lead them to new sources of nectar or pollen (Immelmann & Beer, 1989).

3- Behavior imprint

The imprinting describes any type of sensitive learning phase during which an animal is able to recognize the characteristics of a stimulus, in such a way that this stimulus is said to have been "imprinted" on the subject.

The best way to exemplify the imprinting process is through the filial imprinting process, where a calf learns about various stimuli from the observation of its parents.

Lorenz observed that some waterfowl like geese spontaneously followed their mothers on the first day of birth.

Lorenz demonstrated how geese, when hatching, generate an imprint of the first movement stimulus they perceive.

This imprinting can occur during the first 36 hours of life after the goose hatches. This period of time is known as critical.

In this way, during his experiments, Lorenz showed how numerous newborn geese would generate an imprint on himself.

There is another type of imprint, known as the sexual imprint. This occurs at a later stage of development and is the process by which a young animal learns to recognize the characteristics of a desirable mate.

For example, zebra finches demonstrate that they have a preference for females that resemble their mother.

The reversed sexual imprint is also observable when two individuals of different species live in close domestic proximity during their early years. In this way, both are desensitized to subsequent sexual attraction.

This phenomenon is known as the Westermarck effect, and it is believed that it has probably evolved to suppress inbreeding (Suzuki, 2016).

Importance of ethology

Having a basic understanding of ethology is important for those who have pets and for behavioralists.

To some extent, many pet owners understand the particular behavior of the species they care for. In this way, they are able to read when your dog is hungry, or when your cat wants to play.

Ethology is important to understand why animals do what they do. In this way, if a cat is exhibiting reprehensible behavior, it is likely that it needs the dynamics of its environment to be reconfigured.

In the same way, a fearful dog surely experienced adverse situations during its first years of life, therefore, it needs the conditioned stimulus to be decentralized in order to modify its behavior.

References

1. Britannica, TE (2017). Encyclopædia Britannica. Obtained from Ethology: britannica.com
2. Dodman, N. (August 25, 2015). Pet Place. Obtained from Ethology: The Study of Animal Behavior: petplace.com.
3. Encyclopedia, NW (January 26, 2017). New World Encyclopedia. Obtained from Ethology: newworldencyclopedia.org.
4. Greenberg, G. (November 2010). The Behavioral Neuroscientist and Comparative Psychologist. Retrieved from Comparative Psychology and Ethology: apadivisions.org.
5. Immelmann, K., & Beer, C. (1989). A Dictionary of Ethology. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
6. Lorenz, K. (1978). The Foundations of Ethology. New York: Springer.
7. Suzuki, TN (2016). Journal of Ethology. Niigata: Kensuke Nakata.