Editing Ethology (section)

== History ==

=== The beginnings of ethology ===

[[File:Charles Darwin 1880.jpg|upright |thumb |[[Charles Darwin]] (1809–1882) explored the expression of emotions in animals.]]

Ethologists have been concerned particularly with the [[evolution]] of behaviour and its understanding in terms of [[natural selection]]. In one sense, the first modern ethologist was [[Charles Darwin]], whose 1872 book ''[[The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals]]'' influenced many ethologists. He pursued his interest in behaviour by encouraging his protégé [[George Romanes]], who investigated animal learning and intelligence using an [[anthropomorphism|anthropomorphic]] method, [[anecdotal cognitivism]], that did not gain scientific support.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yorku.ca/andrewsk/documents/Keeley_Anthropomorphism.pdf |title=Anthropomorphism, primatomorphism, mammalomorphism: understanding cross-species comparisons |last=Keeley |first=Brian L. |date=2004 |publisher=York University |page=527 |access-date=19 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217060503/http://www.yorku.ca/andrewsk/documents/Keeley_Anthropomorphism.pdf |archive-date=17 December 2008 |url-status=live}}</ref>

Other early ethologists, such as [[Eugène Marais]], [[Charles Otis Whitman|Charles O. Whitman]], [[Oskar Heinroth]], [[Wallace Craig]] and [[Julian Huxley]], instead concentrated on behaviours that can be called [[instinct]]ive in that they occur in all members of a species under specified circumstances.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Guide to the Charles Otis Whitman Collection ca. 1911 |url=https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.WHITMANCO#idp149584456 |access-date=2022-09-21 |website=lib.uchicago.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Schulze-Hagen |first1=Karl |last2=Birkhead |first2=Timothy R. |date=2015-01-01 |title=The ethology and life history of birds: the forgotten contributions of Oskar, Magdalena and Katharina Heinroth |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10336-014-1091-3 |journal=Journal of Ornithology |volume=156 |issue=1 |pages=9–18 |doi=10.1007/s10336-014-1091-3 |bibcode=2015JOrni.156....9S |s2cid=14170933 |issn=2193-7206}}</ref><ref name=insectbehavior/> Their starting point for studying the behaviour of a new species was to construct an [[ethogram]], a description of the main types of behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence. This provided an objective, cumulative database of behaviour.<ref name=insectbehavior/>

=== Growth of the field ===

Due to the work of [[Konrad Lorenz]] and [[Niko Tinbergen]], ethology developed strongly in continental Europe during the years prior to [[World War II]].<ref name=insectbehavior/> After the war, Tinbergen moved to the [[University of Oxford]], and ethology became stronger in the [[United Kingdom|UK]], with the additional influence of [[William Homan Thorpe|William Thorpe]], [[Robert Hinde]], and [[Patrick Bateson]] at the [[University of Cambridge]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Bateson |first=Patrick |author-link=Patrick Bateson |title=The Development and Integration of Behaviour: Essays in Honour of Robert Hinde |page=479 |isbn=978-0-521-40709-0 |year=1991 |publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref>

Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch were jointly awarded the [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] in 1973 for their work of developing ethology.<ref name="Nobelprize ">{{cite web |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1973/index.html |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973 |work=Nobelprize.org. |access-date=9 September 2016 |quote=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1973 was awarded jointly to Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz and Nikolaas Tinbergen 'for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns'.}}</ref>

Ethology is now a well-recognized scientific discipline, with its own journals such as ''[[Animal Behaviour (journal)|Animal Behaviour]]'', ''[[Applied Animal Behaviour Science]]'', ''[[Animal Cognition]]'', ''[[Behaviour (journal)|Behaviour]]'', ''[[Behavioral Ecology (journal)|Behavioral Ecology]]'' and ''[[Ethology (journal)|Ethology]]''. In 1972, the [[International Society for Human Ethology]] was founded along with its journal, ''Human Ethology''.<ref>{{cite web |title=Goals |url=http://ishe.org/goals/ |publisher=[[International Society for Human Ethology]] |access-date=24 March 2024}}</ref>

=== Social ethology ===

In 1972, the English ethologist John H. Crook distinguished comparative ethology from social ethology, and argued that much of the ethology that had existed so far was really comparative ethology—examining animals as individuals—whereas, in the future, ethologists would need to concentrate on the behaviour of social groups of animals and the social structure within them.<ref name="Crook Goss-Custard 1972 pp. 277–312">{{cite journal |last1=Crook |first1=John H. |last2=Goss-Custard |first2=J. D. |title=Social Ethology |journal=Annual Review of Psychology |volume=23 |issue=1 |year=1972 |doi=10.1146/annurev.ps.23.020172.001425 |pages=277–312}}</ref>

[[E. O. Wilson]]'s book ''[[Sociobiology: The New Synthesis]]'' appeared in 1975,<ref name=WilsonSociobiology/> and since that time, the study of behaviour has been much more concerned with social aspects. It has been driven by the Darwinism associated with Wilson, [[Robert Trivers]], and [[W. D. Hamilton]]. The related development of [[behavioural ecology]] has  helped transform ethology.<ref name="Davies2012" /> Furthermore, a substantial rapprochement with [[comparative psychology]] has occurred, so the modern scientific study of behaviour offers a spectrum of approaches. In 2020, Tobias Starzak and Albert Newen from the Institute of Philosophy II at the [[Ruhr University Bochum]] postulated that animals may have beliefs.<ref>{{cite news |title=What it means when animals have beliefs |url=https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/06/200617145957.htm |newspaper=ScienceDaily |date=17 June 2020 |access-date=18 June 2020}}</ref>