Animal Behavior Study Quiz

Ethology is the branch of zoology that studies the behavior of non-human animals under natural conditions, with a focus on behavior as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviorism, on the other hand, refers to the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually in a laboratory context, without a particular emphasis on evolutionary adaptivity.

Some key naturalists and biologists who have contributed to the development of ethology include Charles Darwin, Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig, Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, and Karl von Frisch.

Ethology is closely related to disciplines such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Ethologists typically show interest in a behavioral process rather than in a particular animal group, and often study one type of behavior, such as aggression, in a number of unrelated species.

The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, who were the recipients of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Ethology has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, and Wallace Craig.

The three recipients of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in ethology were Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch.

Ethology focuses on the behavior of non-human animals under natural conditions and views behavior as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviorism, on the other hand, usually refers to measured responses to stimuli or trained behavioral responses in a laboratory context, without a particular emphasis on evolutionary adaptivity.

Ethology is closely related to disciplines such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology.

Ethologists typically show interest in a behavioral process rather than in a particular animal group, and often study one type of behavior, such as aggression, in a number of unrelated species. They combine laboratory and field science in their studies.