Ethology and its Place in Animal Science

Ethology, the biology of behavior, has gradually gained a firm foothold in the natural sciences, and during the past 20 years or so has become firmly established in various disciplines in which the behavior of animals and man are studied or are of importance. All disciplines which are concerned with the behavior of wild and domesticated animals, including those which utilize animals for specific purposes, e.g., breeders of food animals, veterinarians who treat animals, as well as zoo-keepers who exhibit animals to the public, can and already have greatly benefitted from the ethological study of animals both in the wild and in the laboratory. The contribution of ethology to various areas of psychology is increasingly recognized. The psychology of animals has been intensively studied for over 60 years, but usually as a model for the behavior of man rather than in its own right. Studying the animal in its own right has been a distinguishing characteristic of ethology from the beginning.