What Is Animal Behavioral Ecology?

Animal behavioral ecologists want to know why it is animals do what they do. Did the behavior come about from evolution, or is it something the animal has affected as a result of its experiences? What causes the behavior? Will the animal be able to adapt to its environment? And why should we study animal behavior anyway?

The Field

Animal behavioral ecology, more simply called behavioral ecology, is one of the four fields of the study of animal behavior (the other fields are ethology, comparative psychology and sociobiology). Animal behaviorists study everything animals do, even the behaviors of animals that can only be seen under a microscope. Behavioral ecologists usually have a background in the life sciences (such as biology, ecology or zoology), and they work both in the field and in laboratories.

Tinbergen's Four Questions

Most behavioral ecologists focus on answering one of the following questions in their studies. They want to know either what is the cause of the behavior; how did the behavior develop within the individual's lifetime; what function, or functions, does the behavior serve; or how did the behavior evolve? These questions are known as Tinbergen's Four Questions and are named after the behaviorist Niko Tinbergen who developed them.

Explanation

Question number one deals with both environmental and internal factors that may cause behaviors, such as hormones or infringing on another animal's territory. The answers to question number two may include both genetics and the animal's past experiences, similar to the "nature versus nurture" problem in psychology. Question number three asks how the behaviors will impact the animal immediately and its ability to adapt, such as asking what will happen if an animal's territory is taken by another. Question number four concentrates on how the behaviors originated and how they have changed or will change, such as a horse's flight instinct being exacerbated by modern horse-keeping practices.

Importance

There are several reasons to study behavioral ecology. Behavioral ecology can be used as a way to interpret human social problems (several ground-breaking psychological studies were based on observing animal behavior), applied to the study of neurobiology (neuroethology combines animal behavior and neuroscience) , find solutions to environmental issues (animal behavior is indicative of health of the environment), help with animal welfare (behavioral observation is necessary for deciding how to protect endangered species), and bring in new interest in biological sciences (many students find animal behavior more interesting than other science disciplines). There is also a lot of interest in animal behavior from the public. Consider all of the recent documentaries and books that have come out, and the popularity of safari trips.

A Behavioral Ecologist

Dr. Jennifer Borgo, a visiting assistant professor at Coker College in Hartsville, SC, is a wildlife behavioral ecologist who has studied flying squirrels, ducks, woodpeckers, and grouse. She studies ultimate behaviors as opposed to proximate behaviors. Proximate behaviors refer to question one of Tinbergen's Four Questions, and ultimate behaviors refer to question three. Dr. Borgo focuses on interspecific interaction, which she describes as the interactions between members of different species (such as one animal hunting another).