Editing Ethology (section)

==== Fixed action patterns ====

{{main|Fixed action pattern}}

An important development, associated with the name of Konrad Lorenz though probably due more to his teacher, [[Oskar Heinroth]], was the identification of [[fixed action pattern]]s. Lorenz popularized these as instinctive responses that would occur reliably in the presence of identifiable stimuli called sign stimuli or "releasing stimuli". Fixed action patterns are now considered to be instinctive behavioural sequences that are relatively invariant within the species and that almost inevitably run to completion.<ref name="Campbell 1996">{{cite book |last=Campbell |first=N. A. |year=1996 |title=Biology |edition=4 |chapter=Chapter 50 |publisher=Benjamin Cummings, New York |isbn=978-0-8053-1957-6}}</ref>

One example of a releaser is the [[beak]] movements of many bird species performed by newly hatched chicks, which stimulates the mother to regurgitate food for her offspring.<ref>{{cite book |last=Bernstein |first=W. M. |title=A Basic Theory of Neuropsychoanalysis |year=2011 |publisher=Karnac Books |isbn=978-1-85575-809-4 |page=81}}</ref> Other examples are the classic studies by Tinbergen on the [[Fixed action pattern#Greylag goose egg-retrieval behavior|egg-retrieval behaviour]] and the effects of a "[[supernormal stimulus]]" on the behaviour of [[Graylag goose|graylag geese]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Tinbergen |first=Niko |author-link=Niko Tinbergen |year=1951 |title=The Study of Instinct |publisher=Oxford University Press, New York.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |author=Tinbergen, Niko |author-link=Niko Tinbergen |year=1953 |title=The Herring Gull's World |publisher=Collins, London}}</ref>

One investigation of this kind was the study of the [[waggle dance]] ("dance language") in [[bee learning and communication|bee communication]] by [[Karl von Frisch]].<ref name="Buchmann 2006">{{cite book |last=Buchmann |first=Stephen |title=Letters from the Hive: An Intimate History of Bees, Honey, and Humankind |year=2006 |publisher=Random House of Canada |isbn=978-0-553-38266-2 |page=105}}</ref>