Ethology
SYNOPSIS
Students choose an animal to observe and collect data about what the animal is
doing. Students use this information to make a hypothesis about why the animal
behaves in certain ways in certain circumstances.
OBJECTIVE
Students will be able to describe scientific processes used in ethology.
MATERIALS (one / student or group)
• animal in natural setting
• graph paper
• pencil
VOCABULARY
ethology: the scientific study of animal behavior
BACKGROUND RESOURCES
http://www.biology-nation.com/Introduction_to_Ethology.html
http://cas.bellarmine.edu/tietjen/Ethology/introduction_to_ethology.htm
http://www.jason.org/digital_library/3363.aspx
http://www.wilsonsociety.org/wosmanual/5.AvianEthogram.pdf
http://faculty.washington.edu/jcha/330_more_sampling_methods.pdf
http://www.zoo.org/Document.Doc?id=180
PROCEDURES
1. Teach/review content and vocabulary as necessary at the appropriate
academic level.
2. Explain to students they will choose an animal to study. They will spend
time observing the animal and documenting what the animal is doing.
They will then develop a hypothesis about a particular behavior and
why the animal does this.
3. Students may work individually or in small groups.
4. Have the students choose their animal. Suggestions include: birds,
classroom pet, house pet, insects, animals at a local zoo, videos of
animals on the web (one of the websites above has various video clips
appropriate for observation). When they do their observation, they will
do “focal animal sampling” which means they will focus on one
particular animal’s behavior.
5. Distribute the necessary materials to the students. Prior to beginning their
observations, the students should decide how they are going to
document the animal’s behavior. They should create their data
collection chart before they begin their observations. Below is a
suggested data chart (see PDFs in Resources section for additional
information and ideas for data collection)
Animal: Crow
Time
00:00
00:30
01:00
01:30
Location: Citrus Park, Tustin, CA Weather: Sunny, 22°C
Behavior
Other
Other Notes
Animals in
Proximity
Standing on
3 crows, 1
Crow was
tree branch,
dog
looking in
cawing
direction of
dog while
cawing
Standing on
3 crows
Crow looking
tree branch
in direction of
dog as it
moved away
Flying
3 crows
towards grass
Feeding in
1 crow
Can’t tell
grass
what eating
etc.
Observation Length recommended = 15 minutes; students can do multiple
observation sessions
Students may develop brief descriptors of behavior to quickly enter data. For
instance:
V = vocalization
G = grooming
I = interacting w/ other animal of same species
F = feeding
Ag = alarm call in response to ground predator
Aa = alarm call in response to aerial predator
6. Have the students complete their observations and data sheets. This may
be done as a class, individually, for homework, etc.
7. Once they have gathered their data, students should discuss their
observations with classmates and/or conduct research on the species’
behavior (depending on the students’ academic level). The goal is for
them to recognize any patterns in their data. For instance, if the crow
cawed every time a dog was nearby, then perhaps the vocalization has
something to do with the dog (i.e., warning, alarm call).
8. Students create a hypothesis to describe why a certain behavior they
observed occurs. For instance, in the example above, the hypothesis
may be: “The crow vocalizes every time a dog is near as a warning to
the other crows.”
9. Depending on the length designated for this project, students may choose
one hypothesis to pursue as a class, or each student/group can study
their own. They will need to conduct research or receive additional
guidance to develop a study to test their hypothesis. As an extension,
they can implement the study.
CHECK FOR UNDERSTANDING
- Have the students write two paragraphs describing the scientific processes
they used to conduct their ethological study.
HMD 2010