Concepts in Animal Behaviour: The Historical Development of Research and Ideas Leading to a Modern Understanding of Communication.

Concepts in Animal Behaviour: The historical development of research and ideas leading to a modern understanding of Communication.

In The Beginning.

The study into animal behaviour could be said to have started in the 17th century when Descartes began to offer mechanistic reasons for the behavioural processes of organisms (Charlwood, D., 2009). The subject really began to put down its roots when Darwin raised the subject of various behaviour patterns in animals and the mechanisms behind them in 1872 (Marler, P., 2005). Darwin and Wallace stated that the basis of animal behaviour was the evolutionary relationship between living organisms (Darwin, C., 1859/1968). Descartes and later Darwin and Wallace originally made their investigations through observational studies. Darwin of course later conducted experiments to back up his growing theory of evolution.

The majority of early studies in the field focussed on proximate explanations for behaviour. It wasn't until a few decades ago that ultimate causes were being investigated to a larger degree. This is thanks largely to the work of the founding fathers of ethology defining the science (Alcock, J., 2003).

The Founding Fathers.

With the roots laid, the subject of Animal behaviour began to take hold. It was from the 1930's onwards that the subject really grew and through the work of three men over several decades Animal Behaviour as a recognised branch of Biology was developed. These three men, known as the founding fathers of ethology, were Tinbergen, Lorenz and von Frisch. They were eventually jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for their pioneering work (Dewsbury, D.A., 2003).

Tinbergen described ethology as "the biological study of behaviour" (Tinbergen, N., 1963). One of Tinbergen's most widely known studies looked at communication in sticklebacks. Tinbergen noted how male sticklebacks defend their territories from other males but prefer to use threats rather than fighting when the territory is invaded (Tinbergen, N., 1947). The communication of the intent to protect the territory from one stickleback to another is important as it prevents an actual conflict which could injure either party. Tinbergen's early experiments were observational but later he experimented by introducing crude models of male and female sticklebacks within the territory of a male. He noted how the male only showed aggression towards the model with a red mark on it, representing the male. The red mark acted as a stimulus and told the stickleback which behaviour was the appropriate response.

Tinbergen also created the 4 questions. These questions were posed with an aim to answer why and how an animal performs a behaviour. The questions were based on Aristotle's four causes. The questions are, function (adaption), phylogeny (evolution), causation (proximate explanations) and development (ontogeny) (Cuthill, C.I., 2005).

In 1956 Karl von Frisch et al published a paper describing the ways in which bees use a round dance to inform other hive mates of a nearby food source. The study also noted how if the food source was further than 50-100m away from the hive the dance changed from a round dance to a waggle dance. This meant the bees could communicate the distance of a food source to others and then by use of scent convey which food source to seek (Von Frisch,K., et al, 1956).

Lorenz's studies were more developmental the most famous being those on the imprinting of greylag geese (Lorenz. K., (1953).

Cruelty to Compromise.

Early studies into communication included that of Donald R Griffen et al who studied the unique form of communication bats have with their environment. They set up an experimental investigation in which bats were encouraged to fly a route through a series of suspended wires. Bats were allowed to fly the course unhindered as a control. Then they allowed bats with blindfolds over one or both eyes, bats with one or both ears blocked and bats with their mouths covered to fly the route (Griffen, D.R., et al, 1941). These experiments were much more humane avoiding harm to the bats compared with earlier similar studies in which ears were removed and eyes covered inhumanly and the skin covered with Vaseline to investigate any possibility of guidance through sensing air pressure (Hahn, W.L., 1908). The results were that the bats with their ears covered were reluctant to fly at all and when they did, flew more frequently into the wires. This supported an earlier theory (Hartridge, H., 1920) that bats detect obstacles by emitting supersonic notes then hearing them reflected back and calculating how far away the obstacle that bounced the sound is. These experiments show how a change in the way animals are treated has come about over the years. As a rule experimental