Ethology, the study of animal behaviour. 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.
The word ethology is derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning “habit” or “character” and logos, meaning “study”. The term ethology was introduced by Niko Tinbergen (1950). Ethology is defined as the systematic and scientific study of the behaviour of animal (including human) under natural conditions.
Genetics, developmental biology, anatomy, physiology, endocrinology, neurobiology, evolution, learning and social theory are all combined into one grand subject — animal behaviour. The field of ethology is, thus, integrative in the true sense of the word.
Credit : Britannica
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