- ethology
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/ee thol"euh jee, i thol"-/, n.the study of animal behavior with emphasis on the behavioral patterns that occur in natural environments.[1895-1900; earlier, as the study of relations between an organism and its environment < F éthologie, coined by French zoologist I. Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (1805-61); see ETHOS, -LOGY]
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Study of animal behaviour.It is a combination of laboratory and field science, with strong ties to other disciplines (e.g., neuroanatomy, ecology, evolution). Though many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour through the centuries, the modern science of ethology is considered to have arisen as a discrete discipline with the work in the 1920s of Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz. Interested in the behavioral process rather than in a particular animal group, ethologists often study one type of behaviour (e.g., aggression) in various unrelated animals.* * *
the study of animal behaviour. Although many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour through the centuries, the modern science of ethology is usually considered to have arisen as a discrete discipline with the work in the 1920s of biologists Nikolaas Tinbergen of The Netherlands and Konrad Lorenz of Austria. Ethology is a combination of laboratory and field science, with strong ties to certain other disciplines—e.g., neuroanatomy, ecology, evolution. The ethologist is interested in the behavioral process rather than in a particular animal group and often studies one type of behaviour (e.g., aggression) in a number of unrelated animals.* * *
Universalium. 2010.