Ethology Essay ⋆ Environment Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

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Ethology is the study of animal behavior. It is a branch of zoology that focuses mainly on the role of anatomy and physiology in determining behavior, rather than analysis of psychology. The field emerged toward the end of the 19th century and was greatly expanded upon in the 20th century as a scientific study drawing on the parsimonious approach to explain animal behavior, which aims to find the simplest motivation for behavior and, thus, avoid anthropomorphizing animals. The nature of the behaviors explored depends on the animal concerned, its sophistication and structure, and the motivations it has to act in particular ways. Consequently, the ethology of simple animals with a low number of cells is significantly different from the behavior of primates, which involves sophisticated and complex social relationships.

One influential ethologist was Konrad Lorenz (1903-89), an Austrian zoologist who jointly won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973. Lorenz spent many years closely observing different types of animals, especially birds, and analyzing and describing that behavior. In his work with young geese and ducks, Lorenz observed that the young birds began to imitate their parents (or substitute parents) through a process he termed imprinting. This involved both visual and audio stimuli provided by the parents, which were mimicked by the young animals. It was possible for replacement parents to be used, and the young creatures would imitate a creature of quite another species. Lorenz also noted the adaptive and evolutionary behavior of animals, specifically with reference to changing behavior to survive in difficult or shifting environments. This led him to understand that aggression in human beings is also an innate form of behavior that exists for evolutionary survival purposes, and which may be changed with behavior modification techniques.

Ideas such as this have made ethology controversial to those people who religious beliefs inform them that humans are unique and distinct from animals. One of the joint Nobel Prize winners with Lorenz was Nikolaas Tinbergen, whose work focused on developing the issues of causation, development, evolutionary history, and function of animal behaviors and the ways they change. Sir Julian Huxley developed the ideas emerging from ethology to consider the future of human evolution and the cultural factors that he believed would influence its course. Again, his work was based on the scientific method and on the careful accumulation of observations and data.

Modern ethologists have adopted more concepts from other scientific disciplines, including sociobiology, comparative psychology, and ecology. This has enabled ethologists to take a more holistic approach. One of the most notable scientists workers in this field is Richard Dawkins, whose book The Selfish Gene outlines the ways that genetic programming causes behavior in animals, including humans, which is aimed at the long-term survival of the species. This means that there are occasions on which individual members of a particular species might behave in a manner that is personally self-destructive, but that is necessary for the species as a whole. Dawkins argues that humans are uniquely placed among all living creatures in being able to understand this genetic prerogative and may be able to escape from it through behavior modification techniques or through technological enhancement. While this form of ethology is aimed at humans and the higher primates, the lower forms of animals still offer many lessons for ethologists, particularly with respect to adaptation to changing environments, which may offer important lessons in dealing with global climate change and environmental degradation.

Bibliography:

Richard W. Burkhardt, Jr., Patterns of Behavior: Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the Founding of Ethology (University of Chicago Press, 2005);
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene (Oxford University Press, 2005);
Julian Huxley, Evolutionary Humanism (Prometheus Books, 1992);
Konrad Lorenz, Man Meets Dog (Routledge Classics, 2002);
Desmond Morris, Primate Ethology (Anchor Books, 1969).