Ethology

Ethology is the study of animal behaviour with a special attention to the natural environment and physiological, evolutionary aspects. The term was coined from the French éthologie by the zoologist Isidore Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and first popularised in english by the American Myrmecologist William Morton Wheeler in 1902.

An earlier, slightly different sense of the term, however, was proposed by John Stuart Mill in his 1843 System of Logic. He recommended the development of a new science, "ethology," whose purpose would be the explanation of individual and national differences in character, on the basis of associationistic psychology. This use of the word was never adopted, however.

According to one school of thought, nonhuman animals experience conscious thought since the basic structure and functioning of neurons and synapses in different animal brains is similar. There is no convincing evidence that specific features of gross neuroanatomy are essential for conscious thinking. In this view, different behaviours emerge from differences in brain capacity and the manner in which the neural networks are hardwired by evolution.

The following people have made notable contributions to the field of ethology:

• Horace Donisthorpe
• Karl von Frisch
• Konrad Lorenz
• Niko Tinbergen
• William Morton Wheeler