Ethology

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Ethology

The biological study of animal behavior is called Ethology. All behavior is a reaction to a stimulus. John B. Watson influenced animal behavior in the twentieth century. He published a book in 1924 called Behaviorism. Jakob von Uexkull and O. Heinroth started a school that taught about animal behavior. There are two categories of animal behavior: "genetically determined" or "environmentally determined." Animal behavior is the different ways that animals do different things, such as hunting. An example of this would be how a lion hides in the grass to hunt their prey. Some of these are instinct or they must learn from their parents or the hard way.
Examples of animal behavior
    When a jackdaw bird first makes its nest, it has to learn
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new ways to make it. It might start trying to make its nest with light bulbs and other items that are not needed to make a nest. When it uses a twigs to make the nest, it finally learns that twigs are the best item to make the nest with. The jackdaw stores what it learns, and it only uses the twigs that it used earlier.
    When ducklings hatch out of their eggs, they follow their mother. During this time they learn the differences in males and females. They will need this when they grow older, and use this for mating. If they were to follow other species they would do the things that they do and be with them.
    A very important part of a bird's learning is learning the different songs. The young male can only learn the territoria...

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Submitted by: digitalessays
Date Submitted: 07-15-2000
Category: Social Issues
Words: 1073
Pages: 4.29