Ethologen

Ethologists are scientists who study animal behavior in natural contexts. They seek to understand how and why behaviors arise, how they contribute to survival and reproduction, and how they evolve across species. Ethology emphasizes field observations and the ecological and evolutionary significance of behavior, often using long-term studies and comparative approaches. In German-language contexts, practitioners are called Ethologen.

Ethology emerged as a formal discipline in the mid-20th century, led by Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch, whose work on imprinting, fixed action patterns, and animal communication highlighted naturalistic observation. They proposed four questions for explaining behavior: mechanism, development, function, and evolution—often known as Tinbergen's four questions.

Ethology covers a wide range of topics, including foraging, mating and parental care, communication, social structure, and predator–prey interactions. Methods include ethograms, systematic field observations, controlled experiments, and cross-species comparisons. The field emphasizes the adaptive significance of behavior and its neural and genetic underpinnings, and it increasingly integrates neuroethology and behavioral ecology.

Ethology remains a core component of animal behavior studies, complementing experimental psychology and molecular biology. Its insights inform conservation, animal welfare, and the understanding of behavior across taxa, while the discipline continues to adapt to ethical considerations in animal research.