Overview

Why does a bird sing? Why does a dog wag its tail? Ethology is the study of animal behavior in the wild. Unlike behaviorism (which studies rats in lab mazes), ethologists go into the mud and watch what animals actually do. They treat behavior as an organ—something that evolved to help the animal survive.

Core Idea

The core idea is Instinct vs. Learning.

  • Fixed Action Pattern (FAP): A behavior that is hardwired. Once triggered, it must be finished. (e.g., A goose rolling an egg back to the nest. If you take the egg away, she keeps rolling the invisible egg).
  • Imprinting: A critical period where a baby learns who its mother is.

Formal Definition

The scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually with a focus on behavior under natural conditions. Tinbergen’s Four Questions:

  1. Causation: What triggers it? (Hormones).
  2. Development: How does it grow? (Learning).
  3. Function: Why is it useful? (Survival).
  4. Evolution: Where did it come from? (Ancestors).

Intuition

  • Psychology: “What is the rat thinking?”
  • Ethology: “Why is the rat doing that, and how does it help it not get eaten by a hawk?”

Examples

  • Konrad Lorenz: The father of Ethology. He got baby geese to imprint on him. Wherever he walked, a line of geese followed. He proved that attachment is biological, not just about who feeds you.
  • Bee Dance: Karl von Frisch discovered that bees communicate the location of flowers by doing a “Waggle Dance.” The angle of the dance tells the direction; the duration tells the distance.
  • Supernormal Stimulus: A bird will prefer a giant, fake, bright blue egg over its own real egg. Its brain is hacked by the exaggerated signal. (Like humans preferring candy over fruit).

Common Misconceptions

  • Animals are robots: We used to think they were just stimulus-response machines. Now we know they have complex emotions, cultures, and tools (e.g., crows using hooks).
  • Anthropomorphism: The danger of projecting human feelings onto animals. “The dog looks guilty.” No, the dog looks submissive because you are yelling.
  • Altruism: Why do animals help each other? (See Kin Selection).
  • Game Theory: Using math to predict animal fights (Hawk-Dove Game).

Applications

  • Animal Welfare: Understanding what animals need to do (like rooting for pigs) to be happy in captivity.
  • AI: designing robots that learn like animals.

Criticism / Limitations

  • Observer Bias: It is hard to watch animals without influencing them (Heisenberg Principle of Biology).

Further Reading

  • Lorenz, Konrad. King Solomon’s Ring. 1949.
  • De Waal, Frans. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?. 2016.