etologi

Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior in natural or naturalistic settings. It aims to describe and explain how animals interact with their environment and with other animals, and how behaviors have evolved. Ethologists emphasize observing behavior in the animals’ own contexts and use comparative methods across species to illuminate function and adaptation. Topics include foraging, mating, communication, social structure, and parental care.

Historically, ethology developed in the first half of the 20th century with Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and Karl von Frisch. Their work on imprinting, fixed action patterns, and animal signaling helped establish instinct and learning as subjects of naturalistic study. Tinbergen formulated four questions about behavior—mechanism, development, function, and evolution—linking proximate and ultimate causes.

Methods include ethograms, which catalog observed actions with definitions and durations, and long-term field observations. Experiments such as stimulus releases and playback studies test behavioral hypotheses while seeking to minimize disturbance. While field studies are central, modern ethology also employs controlled experiments and integrates data from ecology, genetics, and neurobiology.

Key areas include communication, mating and parental strategies, social organization, aggression, foraging, and learning. Applied ethology informs animal welfare, husbandry, conservation, and zoo management, emphasizing enrichment and welfare-friendly practices. The field intersects behavioral ecology and comparative psychology and increasingly uses quantitative methods and cross-species comparisons.

Ethology seeks to understand why a behavior exists, how it develops, and how it contributes to survival and reproduction, within an evolutionary framework. It remains a dynamic discipline shaping biology, conservation, and human-animal interactions.