Konrad Lorenz, (born Nov. 7, 1903, Vienna, Austria—died Feb. 27, 1989, Altenburg), Austrian zoologist, founder of modern ethology, the study of animal behaviour by means of comparative zoological methods.

Konrad Lorenz

Konrad Lorenz’s Imprinting Theory Lorenz (1935) investigated the mechanisms of imprinting, where some species of animals form an attachment to the first large moving object that they meet. This process is known as imprinting, and suggests that attachment is innate and programmed genetically.

Lorenz studied instinctive behavior in animals, especially in greylag geese and jackdaws.

It became a distinct discipline in the 1930s with zoologists Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen and Karl Von Frisch. These three scientist are known as the major contributors to human ethology. They are also regarded as the fathers or founders of ethology.

The Tinbergen Rule states that achieving the desired targets requires an equal number of instruments. This paper shows that time inconsistency does not exist in the case of an equal number of instruments and targets.

Influenced by the work of Karl von Frisch, and by J. -H. Fabre’s writings on insects, I decided to use the chance discovery of a colony of Beewolves (Philanthus – a digger wasp) for a study of their remarkable homing abilities.

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Nikolaas Tinbergen, (born April 15, 1907, The Hague, Neth. —died Dec. 21, 1988, Oxford, Eng.), Dutch-born British zoologist and ethologist (specialist in animal behaviour) who, with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1973.

Tinbergen (1951) undertook an experiment with male sticklebacks. This species of fish is very territorial and aggressive. In the mating season they develop a red spot on their underside. Tinbergen observed that at this time male sticklebacks will attack another male stickleback that enters their territory.

Tinbergen’s contributions expanded the understanding of behavior in a variety of species such as black-headed gulls, graylag geese, herring gulls, stickleback fish, and digger’s wasps. In each of the studies, he created systematic observations and experiments to investigate animal behavior.

Evolutionary explanations of aggression suggest that aggression serves an important function in terms of both individual survival as well as reproductive potential. This means that aggression has an adaptive purpose because it facilitates survival and adaptation to the environment.

Fixed action patterns consist of a series of actions triggered by a key stimulus. The pattern will go to completion even if the stimulus is removed. Scientists can test if a behavior is innate by providing a stimulus to naive—untrained—animals and to see if the behavior is automatically triggered.

Innate behavior is a behavior an organism is born with. There are two types of innate behavior reflex and instinct. A reflex is an automatic response that does not involve a message from the brain. Reflex Examples: Sneezing, shivering, yawning, quickly pulling your hand away from a hot surface, blinking your eyes.

There are 6 characteristics of fixed action patterns. Fixed action patterns are said to be stereotyped, complex, species-characteristic, released, triggered, and independent of experience. Stereotyped: Fixed action patterns occur in rigid, predictable, and highly-structured sequences.