History of the Study of Animal Behaviour

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History of the Study of Animal Behaviour
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History of Studies of Animal Behaviour

• Scala Naturae (Aristotle)
• Evolutionary Approach (J.Lamarck C.Darwin)
• Ethology (K.Lorenz N.Tinbergen)
• Comparative Psychology (C.Morgan E.Thorndike
  M.H.Harlow K.Lashley)
• Sociobiology/Behavioural Ecology (E.O.Wilson
  W.D.Hamilton)

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lt-- Humans
Scala Naturae (the great chain of beings)
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Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (1744-1829) Engraving in
1821
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Charles Darwin (1809-1882)wedding portrait done
in 1841
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Evolution according to Lamarck According to
Lamarck, constant use of certain organs led to
changes in the organs themselves. For example,
stretching of the neck, in the case of the
giraffe, led to its gradual lengthening.
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Evolution according to Darwin Darwin
maintained that the mechanism of natural
selection was responsible for the evolution of
longer-necks in giraffes individuals with longer
necks survived to pass their long-neck trait
along.
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Ethologists Comparative Psychologists

• Evolution, function
• Innate behaviour
• Many species
• Natural habitats
• Species differences

• Mechanisms, development
• Learned behavour
• Few species
• Laboratory
• General laws

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The egg retrieval response of the greylag goose
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Fixed Action Pattern- a programmed behaviour
pattern triggered by a specific environmental
stimulus

• It is innate or unlearned
• It is stereotyped
• It is difficult to disrupt

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A gull attempting to incubate a super-egg instead
of her own egg
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Clever Hans - a horse with a head for numbers
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Conwy Lloyd Morgan (1852-1936) Photograph from
ca. 1900
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Morgans Canon

• In no case may we interpret an action as the
  outcome of the exercise of a higher psychical
  faculty if it can be interpreted as the outcome
  of the exercise of one which stands lower in the
  psychological scale.
• (Morgan 1891, p. 53)

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Thorndikes puzzle box
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Mother-Infant Bonding
Primates have a biological need for contact
comfort
Margaret and Harry Harlow
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Karl Lashley attempted to locate the locus of
learning in the cerebral cortex
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Sociobiology/Behavioural Ecology

• Focus on the function of behaviour
• Cost/benefit analysis of the individual
• acts
• All behaviour is ultimately selfish
• (it maximizes individual genetic success)

Alarm call by a ground squirrel