Editing Ethology (section)

=== 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/>