What is Ethology and what is its object of study?

It is not uncommon for different branches of knowledge to intersect to create hybrid disciplines. This is the case of Ethology, a branch of biology that deals with the how and why of animal behavior.

It is impossible to understand human behavior without first being familiar with the behavior of animals, for this reason the The study of ethology is essential in the training of any psychologist who wants to have a holistic vision of development. human.

What is ethology?

Ethology emerged as a distinct discipline in the 1920s through the efforts of Konrad lorenz, Karl von Frisch and Niko Tinbergen, who in 1973 jointly received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the study of behavior. They were influenced by the founding work of, among others, ornithologist Oskar Heinroth and the ant scholar William Morton Wheeler, who popularized the term "ethology" in an article from 1902.

Ethologists use comparative methodology to study behaviors such as cooperation, parental investment, conflict

, sexual selection, and aggression in various species. Today, ethology as a label has been progressively replaced by others such as behavioral ecology or evolutionary psychology. These areas of knowledge tend to place more emphasis on social relationships rather than the individual; however, they still maintain the tradition of fieldwork and are based on the theory of evolution.

Scholars of ethology almost always work in the animal's own environment to carry out hypothesis-based experimental investigations. The combination of laboratory and field work reflects a very important underlying concept of the discipline: that the Behavior is adaptive, that is, it allows an animal to better fit into its environment and be more likely to survive and thrive. play.

The method of ethology

Ethologists, like most scientists, generate hypotheses about animal behavior. To test them empirically, Tinbergen proposes that any researcher should have very good Ask the following four questions when formulating hypotheses if you are to give a full explanation of the phenomenon:

1. Function

The researcher must ask himself how the behavior is adaptive. What aspects make it easier for you to survive and, therefore, make you more likely to pass your genes on to the next generation.

2. Mechanism

The researcher has to answer the question of what stimulus or stimuli triggers the behavior to be studied. Also, if the answer has been modified by some recent learning.

3. Developing

How does this behavior change throughout the life cycle of the animal? The experimenter must elucidate if there are some early experiences that are necessary for the animal to acquire this behavior.

4. Evolution history

The researcher must find the answer to whether the behavior under study resembles in any way one exhibited by other species. In this sense, It must also be formulated how the behavior may have evolved through the development of the species or group itself..

Key concepts of ethology

One of the fundamental ideas of ethology is the existence of modal action patterns (MAP). PAMs are stereotyped behaviors that occur in a rigid sequence, in specific situations in response to a specific stimulus. A kind of "behavioral reflex" that occurs inevitably and always in the same way.

For example: the goose, whenever it sees one of its eggs outside the nest, will roll the egg back to its place with its beak. If we removed the egg, the goose would continue to roll an imaginary egg. It will also try to move any egg-shaped object such as a golf ball, pommel, or even eggs too large to be laid by a goose. You can't help doing it reflexively because MAP is embedded in your brain like a circuit.

1. Behavior as adaptation

Since ethology was born as a brand of biology, ethologists are very concerned with the evolution of behavior in terms of the theory of natural selection. It is important to note that this approach is purely speculative. It is not possible to find fossilized behavior nor can we examine geological data to locate it throughout history.

The most concrete evidence on the theory that behavior evolves is limited to small instances of evolution that occur within a species, but we have never directly witnessed a behavioral change between species chained. There is a certain level of extrapolation when ethology deals with these issues.

2. Animals use PAMs to communicate

Above we have discussed what ethology calls modal action patterns and how it resembles a reflex. Once MAPs have been identified, they can be compared from species to species to contrast similarities and differences in similar behaviors.

A well-known example of how PAMs intervene in animal communication is bees. These fascinating insects communicate with each other through aerial dances in the shape of eight. As they dance, taking the "eight axis" and the sun as reference points, they form an angle that indicates to the other bees in the colony where there is nectar, and its duration indicates how far away it is.

3. Imprinting is a type of learning

A related concept of ethology is that of imprinting. This is a special type of learning that occurs during a critical period, outside of which you can no longer occur, during which the young animal will learn some pattern of social behavior towards its parents or brothers. Learning cannot occur outside of this critical period.

For example, Konrad Lorenz observed that from hatch, birds such as ducks, geese and swans are able to identify their parents and follow them spontaneously.. He demonstrated how hatchery-born ducklings could form an imprint with the first stimulus they perceived at birth, for example, Lorenz's own footwear.