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The Epic Interactive Encyclopedia 1998
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Epic Interactive Encyclopedia, The - 1998 Edition (1998)(Epic Marketing).iso
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Ethology
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1992-09-02
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The comparative study of animal behaviour in
its natural setting. Ethology is concerned
with the causal mechanisms (both the stimuli
that elicit behaviour and the physiological
mechanisms controlling it), as well as the
development of behaviour, its function, and
its evolutionary history. Ethology was
pioneered during the 1930s by Konrad Lorenz
and Karl von Frisch who, with Nikolaas
Tinbergen, received the Nobel prize in 1973.
Ethologists believe that the significance of
an animal's behaviour can be understood only
in its natural context, and emphasize the
importance of field studies and an
evolutionary perspective. A recent
development within ethology is sociobiology,
the study of the evolutionary function of
social behaviour.