Ethology is the scientific study of animal behavior, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait. Behaviourism as a term also describes the scientific and objective study of animal behavior, usually referring to measured responses to stimuli or to trained behavioral responses in a laboratory context, without a particular emphasis on evolutionary adaptivity. Throughout history, different naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour. Ethology has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American and German ornithologists of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, and Wallace Craig. The modern discipline of ethology is generally considered to have begun during the 1930s with the work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, the three recipients of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Ethology combines laboratory and field science, with a strong relation to some other disciplines such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Ethologists typically show interest in a behavioral process rather than in a particular animal group, and often study one type of behavior, such as aggression, in a number of unrelated species.
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns in animals. He is regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, the study of animal behavior.
Sir Paul Patrick Gordon Bateson, was an English biologist with interests in ethology and phenotypic plasticity. Bateson was a professor at the University of Cambridge and served as president of the Zoological Society of London from 2004 to 2014.
Cognitive ethology is a branch of ethology concerned with the influence of conscious awareness and intention on the behaviour of an animal. Donald Griffin, a zoology professor in the United States, set up the foundations for researches in the cognitive awareness of animals within their habitats.
A dog behaviourist is a person who works in modifying or changing behaviour in dogs. They can be experienced dog handlers, who have developed their experience over many years of hands-on experience, or have formal training up to degree level. Some have backgrounds in veterinary science, animal science, zoology, sociology, biology, or animal behaviour, and have applied their experience and knowledge to the interaction between humans and dogs. Professional certification may be offered through either industry associations or local educational institutions. There is however no compulsion for behaviourists to be a member of a professional body nor to take formal training.
Genes, Brain and Behavior is a peer-reviewed online-only scientific journal covering research in the fields of behavioral, neural, and psychiatric genetics. It is published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society. The journal was established in 2002 as a quarterly and is currently published monthly. G2B is a hybrid open access journal, but two years after publication all content is available for free online.
Behavioural Brain Research is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. The journal publishes articles in the field of behavioural neuroscience. Volume 1 appeared in 1980 and issues appeared 6 times per year; as submissions increased it switched to a higher frequency and currently 20 issues per year are published.
Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research is a quarterly, peer reviewed, scientific journal, published by Wiley-Blackwell. It was originally established in 1963, then reestablished in 1994 by John Wiley & Sons. The editor in chief is Dr. Wilfried Westheide. According to Journal Citation Reports, the 2016 impact factor for this journal is 2.444.
Jeremy Neville Marchant is an English/American biologist and research animal scientist at the United States Department of Agriculture – Agricultural Research Service's Livestock Behavior Research Unit, based in West Lafayette, Indiana. He is also a past president of the International Society for Applied Ethology.
Daniel Simon Mills, FRCVS is an English veterinarian and biologist and the UK's first Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine based at the University of Lincoln, United Kingdom. He attended St Edmund's College, Ware before studying at the University of Bristol where he received his BVSc degree and completed his Ph.D. degree in animal behaviour from De Montfort University.
The International Society for Applied Ethology is the leading non-profit professional organization for academics and scientists interested in the behaviour and welfare of confined or domesticated animals, including companion, farm, laboratory and zoo animal species.
Behavioral Ecology is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Society for Behavioral Ecology. The journal was established in 1990.
Animal Welfare is a quarterly, peer-reviewed scientific journal covering studies on the welfare of animals, whether in captivity or in the wild. Its scope includes animal welfare science, animal cognition, ethology, behavioural ecology, evolution of behaviour, sociobiology, behavioural physiology, population biology, neurophysiology and abnormal behaviour. It was established in 1992 and is published by the Universities Federation for Animal Welfare. The editor-in-chief is James K. Kirkwood.
Acta Ethologica is a triannual peer-reviewed scientific journal established in 1998. The journal covers all aspects of the behavioural biology of humans and other animals, including behavioural ecology, evolution of behaviour, sociobiology, ethology, behavioural physiology, and population biology.
Behaviour is a double-blind peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of ethology. It is published by Brill Publishers and was established in 1948 by Niko Tinbergen and W.H. Thorpe. The editor-in-chief is Frans de Waal.
Professor David Grainger Marcus Wood-Gush FRSE was a South African-born animal geneticist and ethologist based for most of his professional life in Edinburgh. He was an expert on animal behaviour and academic author in this field. He was one of the first to study the impacts of factory farming. He advocated the study of animal behaviour to gauge what implied "humane treatment" for different species, and tried to balance these factors against economic viability for the farmer. He looked at the impact of stress upon animals and held that animals should be treated as individuals not as a "commodity". In these studies he concluded that food supply was the essential factor in controlling animal behaviour.
Animal Cognition is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Springer Science+Business Media. It covers research in ethology, behavioral ecology, animal behavior, cognitive sciences, and all aspects of human and animal cognition. According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2020 impact factor of 3.084.
Christopher M. Sherwin was an English veterinary scientist and senior research fellow at the University of Bristol Veterinary School in Lower Langford, Somerset. He specialised in applied ethology, the study of the behaviour of animals in the context of their interactions with humans, and of how to balance the animals' needs with the demands placed on them by humans.
Ethology Ecology & Evolution is a bimonthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering all aspects of the ecology, evolution or genetics of behaviour. It was established in 1890 as Monitore Zoologico Italiano, obtaining its current name in 1989, with volume numbering restarted at 1. It is published by Taylor & Francis and the editor-in-chief is Alberto Ugolini.
Ethology: International Journal of Behavioural Biology is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by John Wiley & Sons. The journal is associated with the Ethologische Gesellschaft e.V. and the current editor-in-chief is Wolfgang Goymann. Previous editors-in-chief of Ethology were Wolfgang Wickler, Michael Taborsky and Jutta Schneider with Susan Foster.
