Often when you start studying something it is not because you think it can be useful: science is first of all discovered , and only after application. In Italy, according to Istat data , about 23% of research is basic research, that is dedicated to the sole objective of expanding knowledge, without aiming for practical applications (as opposed to applied research [1] . Ethology certainly falls largely within in basic research. Animal behaviors are often fascinating and sometimes incredible: observing and knowing them can be rewarding in itself, but even this science can have many practical applications .
Knowing what is behind the behavior of animals and what are the specific behaviors can be useful in farming, agriculture, ecology. For example, to protect a crop from a certain insect it may be useful to know how to interfere with the mating methods of this species. But ethology, even when it means studying non-human animals, can also serve to better understand the psychological, sociological and physiological dynamics that concern man. This science therefore has applications that have economic, public health, animal protection and environmental implications [2] .
So let’s start our exciting course to better understand how and why animals perform certain behaviors.
Science is like sex: sure, it gives a lot of practical results,
but that’s not why we do it.
Anonymous
(wrongly attributed to Richard Feynman)
What is animal behavior?
It is very difficult (if not impossible) to study something without having a precise definition. Apparently, however, biologists and naturalists who study animal behavior adopt different definitions, sometimes contradicting each other. The definition of behavior is therefore not precisely codified. We will adopt the one proposed by Levitis and colleagues: behavior is a coordinated response (actions or absence of actions) to internal or external stimuli implemented by living organisms (individually or in groups) . Behaviors are not the only physiological responses and changes of organisms during development [3] .
Therefore, pubertal development and the production of milk in the breasts are not behaviors, while they are behaviors: group activities such as migrations for some animals (some species migrate alone); voluntary actions such as sexual partner selection; instinctive and stereotyped actions (i.e. fixed and unchangeable) such as immobilization in front of a predator.
It is important to remember that each species has its own behavioral repertoire , that is, it exhibits specific behaviors that are not common to all animals. This repertoire depends on the environment in which the species evolved, on the role it plays in the food web and on the particular physiology of the animal. For example, in a fear-generating situation a generally preyed species will likely exhibit escape behavior. A predatory species, on the other hand, escapes very rarely: in general it will tend to “challenge” the danger (for example, swelling to show itself to be threatening) [4] .
How is animal behavior studied?
Ethology is based on observation, but it cannot be limited to this, so it becomes complicated. Probably the most important lesson in ethology concerns the interpretation of the behaviors that are being observed, and in particular how this should not be carried out. To understand better, let’s do a little experiment. Watch this video and answer the question: Do dogs feel guilty when they do something that they know their owner will scold them?
The answer you have probably given is yes. The face of the animal seems to say: “I made it big here and my master will make me pay”. But the reality is probably different. In one experiment, it was found that dogs display this guilty expression when their owner is angry or scolds them, regardless of whether they have committed a “crime” or not. In fact, canine transgressions often occur hours before the owners notice it, so the dog cannot connect the two events, his own “criminal” act with the lecture [4] . For this reason, dogs should not be punished if there is no transgression: if the punishment does not come immediately after disobedience, the animal does not learn.
It is possible for us to interpret the emotions and thoughts of others thanks to introspection and the projection onto the other of our thoughts and emotions. Simplifying, we can say that the projection of ourselves onto others is how we understand them. But if this method is not entirely effective even with our own species (and we have difficulty interpreting even ourselves, in truth), how can applying it to other animals work? Attributing our emotional states, our intentions, our cognitive abilities to other species is often a mistake, which makes us non-objective in evaluating the behaviors we are observing [4]. Our spontaneous tendency to attribute elements of our nature to other animals, events or objects is called anthropomorphization (from the Greek anthropos , man, and morphe , form) [5] .
The dolphins “smile”; but it is the conformation of their face, it does not communicate anything about their emotional state. Dogs “proud” of having won a competition are probably just happy with the attention and prizes they receive in return [4] . And the bee dance is not a form of gymnastic exercise but a way to communicate (as we will see later in the course) [2] .
Bottlenose dolphin showing its “smile” to hundreds of teeth. The impression that it is smiling is given by the shape of its mouth. Photo by Fabrizio Frigeni, free use ( attribution CC0 ).
How not to study animals
Therefore anthropomorphization must be avoided. But neither should we exceed in the opposite sense; an error baptized by the famous ethologist Frans de Waal as anthropodenial (denial of humanity). We must not forget that we are animals too, that there is an evolutionary continuity between us and other species. The physiology and anatomy of all mammals are practically identical, so that, for example, no emotion is the exclusive prerogative of man [4] .
Read also: Man is an animal, the reality of a species
In particular, the behaviors of other primates are generally common to ours; studies show more and more similarities between Homo sapiens and anthropomorphic apes and more. It must always be remembered that two similar species acting similarly in similar circumstances are probably similarly motivated . It’s an assumption we make for nearby species like zebras and horses, or wolves and dogs, so it makes sense to apply it to humans and other primates as well. So man is probably not the only animal that laughs, because for example chimpanzees and bonobos laugh in a similar way and in the same situations that humans do [4] .
But it is necessary to pay close attention: experience in the ethological field and further studies are required in order to correctly interpret behaviors by attributing “human” characteristics and motivations. When in doubt it is always better to avoid anthropomorphization , considering the enormous differences that can exist between two species such as ours and the one we want to study. On the other hand, in nature, appearance often deceives [2] .
Conclusions
We are animals who study other animals, so it is very easy to fall into the temptation to attribute our thoughts to them. It’s easy to go wrong. But the objectivity required by scientific research requires that we stick only to what we are observing. The right way to achieve this is to avoid attributing thoughts and moods, then limiting oneself to describing behaviors based on observed actions . Only after anatomical and physiological analyzes, comparisons with other species and further studies will it be possible to understand the reasons behind the behavior.
We have therefore seen how behavior is studied from the point of view of the approach to be followed. We will see how it is studied from a practical point of view in the course of Applied Ethology.