Animal Behavior [antikvár]

Introduction The study of animal behavior began with early man's first attempts to draw conclusions and make predictions from his observations of the creatures around him. Yet today it remains as one of the most complex and challenging branches of all science. In fact, at present we seem closer to understanding the origins of life itself than we are to understanding how and why most living things behave as they do. The complexity of animal behavior study does not depend on elaborate mathematical treatments, on delicate instruments or giant computers—the paraphernalia that people usually associate with science. Although these devices have their place, they are after all only a means of wringing facts from nature, and an experienced student of animal behavior armed with binoculars and hidden in a blind can gather in a few hours enough facts about his subject to keep him pondering for a year. The challenge is mainly to the intellect, to the judgment and patience of the observer rather than to his technical ingenuity. This would seem to place animal behavior study pretty far from particle physics, but both fields are, in truth, plagued by the same problem: what would the animal (or particle) be doing if the observer were not present as a slight disturber of its environment? Attempts to resolve this problem range all the way from laboratory experiments, conducted under the most rigidly controlled conditions, to field observations in which the student makes elaborate eflforts to conceal himself so that the animal will be left as undisturbed as possible to go about its business amidst the many natural variables of its environment. Neither approach is sufficiem by itself; both are necessary. The emphasis that the behaviorist places on keeping an animal's surroundings undisturbed springs from his conviction that its behavior is meaningful only in the sense that it has enabled the species to survive and evolve to its present status under prevailing environmental conditions. A tiger's teeth and a fish's fins have evolutionary significance not only in their shape but also in how and where they are used. Modern students of animal behavior, among whom Dr. Tinbergen is a leader, have repeatedly shown that relatedness of different animal species is just as surely expressed by comparing their behavior patterns as by comparing their body forms. Being comparative, behavior study is not a field for the narrow specialist. Dr. Tinbergen's distinguished work includes analysis of the homing of wasps, the courtship of butterflies and the nesting behavior of sea birds. His wide experience and deep insights are here combined in a fascinating volume which constitutes not only a challenge but an encouragement to every reader. Anyone, Dr. Tinbergen seems to say, with a sharp eye and ear, a measure of patience and a healthy skepticism about jumping to conclusions, can profitably study animals and may conceivably make observations of lasting value to science. Kenneth D. Roeder Professor of Physiology Department of Biology Tufts University