DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY

DESHBANDHU COLLEGE
UNVERSITY OF DELHI

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR & CHRONOBOLOGY

Assignment
Assignment
B.Sc. Zoology (Hons.) 5th Semester

Submitted to: Submitted by:

Dr Pavitra Sharma Anant
kumar
Dr Sushma
Origin and history of ETHOLOGY
What is ETHOLOGY?

Note :- Do not  Scientific study of animal

confuse Ethology
with the term
behaviour
‘Etiology’ and
‘Ethnology’.
 Father - Konrad Lorenz
Etiology - scientific
•  first popularized by American
study of the causes,
origin and the myrmecologist (a person who
reasons behind the
way the things are.
studies ants) William Morton
Ethnology - an
•
Wheeler in 1902.
academic field that
compares and
 It combines laboratory and
analyzes the
characteristics of
field science, with a strong
different people and relation to some other
relationship
between them. disciplines such as
neuroanatomy, ecology, and
evolutionary biology.
 Beginning of ETHOLOGY
 Earlier, as ethology is considered a topic of biology,
ethologists concerned particularly with the evolution of
behaviour and its understanding in terms of natural selection.
 In one sense, Charles Darwin could be considered as first
Ethologist because his book of 1872 "The expressions of
emotions in man and animals" influenced many ethologists
like his protégé George Romanes, who investigated animal
learning and intelligence using
an anthropomorphic method, anecdotal cognitivism, that did
not gain scientific support.
 Other early ethologists, such as Eugène Marais, Charles
Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig and Julian Charles
Huxley, instead concentrated on behaviours, their focus was Darwin
to construct an ethogram (a description of the main types of (1809–1882)
behaviour with their frequencies of occurrence). This explored the
provided an objective, cumulative database of behaviour, Expression of
which subsequent researchers could check and supplement. emotions in animals.
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.
After the war, Tinbergen moved to the University of Oxford, and ethology became

stronger in the UK, with the additional influence of William Thorpe, Robert Hinde,

and Patrick Bateson at University of Cambridge.
In this period, too, ethology began to develop strongly in North America.

Lorenz, Tinbergen, and von Frisch were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in

Physiology or Medicine in 1973 for their work of developing ethology.

Ethology is now a well-recognized scientific discipline, and has a number of

journals covering developments in the subject such as Animal Behaviour, Animal

Welfare, Applied Animal Behaviour Science, Animal
Cognition, Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology and Journal of Ethology, Ethology.
In 1972, the International Society for Human Ethology was founded to promote

exchange of knowledge and opinions concerning human behaviour.

In 2008, ethologist Peter Verbeek introduced the term "Peace Ethology" as a

sub-discipline of Human Ethology that is concerned with issues of human conflict,

conflict resolution, reconciliation, war, peacemaking, and peacekeeping behaviour.
Social Ethology And Recent
Developments
 In 1972, John Crook
distinguished comparative
ethology from social ethology.
 Comparative  ethology examine
animal as an individual
 while in social ethology we
concentrate the behavior of social
groups of animals
 E. O. Wilson's book
Sociobiology: The New Edward Osborne Wilson,
is an
Synthesis appeared in 1975, and American biologist, naturalist,
since that time, the study of and writer. On numerous
behaviour has been much more occasions he has been given the
nicknames "The New Darwin",
concerned with social aspects
"Darwin's natural heir" or "The
Darwin of the 21st century“.
Pioneers OF Modern Ethology

PIONEERS

Karl von Konrad Niko

Ivan Pavlov
Frisch Lorenz Tinbergen
Karl von Frisch
 Born on November 20, 1886, in Vienna, Austria
 Son of a university professor
 Received Ph.D. from the University of Munich in 1910.
 Initiated a study that proved fishes could distinguish colour
and brightness differences.
 Later, also proved that auditory acuity and sound-
distinguishing ability in fishes is superior to that in
humans.
 His most famous discovery was that honeybees
communicate through “Waggle dance”.
 Director of the zoological institute in Munich from 1925
until World War II and again from 1950 to 1958.
 Apart from 1973 Noble Prize for physiology or medicine,
Frisch received numerous honors, including the Balzan
Foundation Award in 1963 and foreign memberships in
the United States National Academy of Sciences and
Karl von Frisch
the Royal Society of London.
(1886-1982)
 Died on June 12, 1982, in Munich, Germany.
The term ‘Waggle Dance’ used particularly for figure-
eight dance of the honey bee.
 By performing this dance, successful foragers can share
information about the direction and distance to patches of
flowers yielding nectar and pollen, to water sources, or to
new nest-site locations with other members of the colony.

Q. Is there any other dance too performed by the

honeybees to communicate?
Yes, Round Dance and Transitional Dance are also there.

Q. Then, what is the difference between the three?

Distance between the resource and the hive creates the
difference. For example, in case of Apis mellifera ligustica,
the round dance is performed until the resource is about 10
metres away from the hive, transitional dances at a The waggle dance - the direction the bee
distance of 20 to 30 metres, and finally, when it is located at moves in relation to the hive indicates
distances greater than 40 metres from the hive, the waggle direction; if it moves vertically the
direction to the source is directly towards
dance is performed. the Sun. The duration of the waggle part
of the dance signifies the distance.
 Konrad Lorenz
 founder of modern ethology
 son of an orthopedic surgeon
 Had interest in animals at an early age
 kept animals of various species—fish, birds,
monkeys, dogs, cats, and rabbits
 received an M.D. degree at the University of
Vienna in 1928 and was awarded a Ph.D.
in zoology in 1933.
 studied instinctive behavior in animals,
especially in greylag geese and jackdaws.
 Although the principle of attachment or
imprinting had been discovered but he gave the
foundational description of the phenomenon.
 Apart from Noble Prize he also won Austrian
Decoration for Science and Art in 1964, Kalinga
Prize for the Popularization of Science in 1969, Konrad Lorenz
Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and
(1903-1989)
Art in 1984 and many more.
 Nikolaas Tinbergen
 On April 15, 1907, Dutch biologist,
ornithologist, and Nobel Laureate
Nikolaas Tinbergen was born.
 He studied the behavior of animals in
their natural habitats.
 In 1951, Tinbergen’s book ”The Study
of Instinct” was published.
 Other awards and honours
 In 1950 Tinbergen became member of
the Royal Netherlands Academy of
Arts and Sciences. He was elected
a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in
1962. He was also awarded the
Godman-Salvin Medal in 1969 by the Nikolaas Tinbergen
British Ornithologists' Union,[ and in (1907-1988)
1973 received the Swammerdam
Medal and Wilhelm Bölsche Medal.
Approach to animal behavior
Tinbergen described four questions he believed should be asked of any animal behavior, which were:
Causation (mechanism): what are the stimuli that elicit the response, and how has it been modified by
recent learning?
Development (ontogeny): how does the behavior change with age, and what early experiences are
necessary for the behavior to be shown?
Function (adaptation): how does the behavior impact on the animal's chances of survival and reproduction?
Evolution (phylogeny): how does the behavior compare with similar behavior in related species, and how
might it have arisen through the process of phylogeny?

Tinbergen’s Hierarchical Model The Study of Instinct

Lorenz postulated that for each instinctive The Study of Instinct summarises Tinbergen's
act there is a specific energy which builds ideas on innate behavioral reactions in animals
up in a reservoir, the brain. and the adaptiveness and evolutionary aspects of
Tinbergen added complexity to this model, a these behaviors. By behavior, he means the total
model now known as movements made by the intact animal; innate
Tinbergen’s hierarchical model. He behavior is that which is not changed by the
suggested that motivational impulses build learning process. The major question of the book
up in nervous centers in the brain which are is the role of internal and external stimuli in
held in check by blocks. The blocks are controlling the expression of behavior. In
removed by an innate releasing particular, he was interested in explaining
mechanism that allows the energy to flow to 'spontaneous' behaviors: those that occurred in
the next center in a cascade until their complete form the first time they were
the behavior is expressed. Tinbergen’s model performed and that seemed resistant to the
shows multiple levels of complexity and that effects of learning.
Ivan Patrovich Pavlov
 Born September 14 , 1849, Ryazan, Russia.
 Son of a priest and the grandson of a
sexton.
 Alma mater:- Saint Petersburg
University
 Pavlov married a pedagogical student in
1881, but he was so impoverished that at
first they had to live separately.
 Known for modern behavior therapy and
his work in classical conditioning.
 Won Nobel Prize for Physiology or
Medicine in 1904 for his work on digestive
secretions, becoming the first Russian
Nobel laureate.
 Other Awards:- ForMemRS (1907),
Copley Medal (1915 Ivan Pavlov
 Died on 27 February 1936 (aged 86) (1849-1936)
 Classical Conditioning
 Classical conditioning (also known as Pavlovian or respondent conditioning) is a
behavioral mechanism in which a biologically potent stimulus (e.g. food) is paired with a
previously neutral stimulus (e.g. a bell). It also refers to the learning process that results
from this pairing, through which the neutral stimulus comes to elicit a response (e.g.
salivation) that is usually similar to the one elicited by the potent stimulus.

 Classical conditioning is distinct from operant conditioning (also called instrumental

conditioning), through which the strength of a voluntary behavior is modified by
reinforcement or punishment.

 Classical conditioning was first studied in detail by Ivan Pavlov. Who conducted
experiment with a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a buzzer or bell, which was
previously associated with the sight of food.

 Together with operant conditioning, classical conditioning became the foundation

of behaviorism, a school of psychology which was dominant in the mid-20th century and is
still an important influence on the practice of psychological therapy and the study of animal
behavior.
 Pavlov’s opposition to
Communism
 Pavlov’s relationships with the communists and the Soviet government were unique not
only for the Soviet Union but also for the history of science.
 Although he was never a politician, he spoke fearlessly for what he considered the truth.
 In 1922, during the distressing conditions in the aftermath of the Russian Revolution of
1917, he requested permission from Vladimir Lenin to transfer his laboratory abroad. Lenin
denied this request, saying that Russia needed scientists such as Pavlov and that Pavlov
should have the same food rations as an honoured communist. Although it was a period
of famine, Pavlov refused: “I will not accept these privileges unless you give them to every
one of my collaborators!” In spite of many honours granted him by Soviet officials, he
upbraided them openly.
 After returning from his first visit to the United States in 1923, he publicly
denounced communism, stated that the basis for international Marxism was false, and
said, “For the kind of social experiment that you are making, I would not sacrifice a frog’s
hind legs!”
 In 1924, when the sons of priests were expelled from the Military Medical Academy
in Leningrad (the former Imperial Medical Academy), he resigned his chair of physiology,
announcing, “I also am the son of a priest, and if you expel the others I will go too!”
 Bibliography
1. Animal Behaviour, international eleventh edition,
“Dustin R. Rubenstein and John Alcock”, oxford
university press
2. Wikipedia
3. Encyclopedia
4. www.britannica.com
5. scihi.org
6. psychologysays.net