Nikolaas Tinbergen: biography of this Dutch ethologist.

A review of the life and work of Niko Tinbergen, zoologist and father of ethology.

Nikolaas Tinbergen was a pioneering zoologist in the study of animal behavior and a historical figure of great relevance to explain the birth of a discipline such as ethology.

His scientific contributions earned him numerous recognitions and today his discoveries are already part of the scientific heritage that has helped us to better understand how animals behave in their natural habitats.

In this article we will see a brief biography of Nikolaas Tinbergen and we will know what were his main contributions to science and research on animal behavior.

Nikolaas Tinbergen: biography of this researcher.

Nikolaas Tinbergen (1907-1988) was a Dutch zoologist and pioneer in the field of ethology, the scientific discipline that studies animal behavior in their natural habitat.the scientific discipline that studies animal behavior in their natural habitat. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Karl Von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz, for their findings on the organization and elicitation of patterns of individual and social behavior in animals.

Tinbergen developed a strong interest in animals and nature at an early age, as he used to observe the behavior of birds and fish as a child, which sparked his interest in biology. In 1932, he completed his PhD with a dissertation on the behavior of wasps, demonstrating that they used landmarks to orient themselves.

Together with Lorenz, Tinbergen laid the foundations of European ethology. and suggested that the study of this discipline should be applied to the study of animal behavior as well as to the study of human behavior, applying the same methodology. In addition, both hypothesized that all animals have a fixed pattern of action, a repeated and diverse set of movements, rather than reacting solely on impulse in response to environmental factors.

Tinbergen's work in the field of animal research was interrupted by World War II, as he was taken prisoner and spent two years in a German hostage camp. After the war, he was invited to the United States and England to present his ethological studies. In England, he became a professor at Oxford University..

The 4 big questions

As a curious naturalist, Nikolaas Tinbergen was always trying to understand the world around him and his work had a great impact on the development of ethology, both theoretically and practically. In ethology, causation and ontogeny represent the "proximate mechanisms", and adaptation and phylogeny the "ultimate mechanisms".

Tinbergen systematized his interest in animal behavior and in the explanation of these mechanisms into four major questions based on Aristotle's types of causality

Causality or mechanism

How animal behavior is produced in terms of its mechanical or causal properties.. This involves answering questions such as: what are the stimuli that provoke a given behavioral response? How has this behavior been modified by learning? How does behavior function at the molecular, physiological, cognitive and social levels? How are the different levels related?

2. Development or ontogeny

Explanation of animal behavior in functional terms. It tries to clarify questions such as: How does the animal's behavior develop over the course of its life? How does behavior change with age? What early experiences are necessary for a behavior to occur?

3. Adaptation

How does animal behavior influence survival and reproduction?. Represents one of the ultimate or final causes; i.e., the value and adaptive advantage of having a certain behavioral repertoire built in.

4. Evolution or phylogeny

Involves the historical sequence of changes that take place in a given evolutionary time period. It attempts to compare the behavior of a given species with that of a similar species.The researches of the scientific community have been able to answer questions such as how particular species could arise, what allows a species to become a different one, etc.

Scientific research

Tinbergen and Lorenz studied bird behavior together. Their only published joint study was on the behavior of wild geese.. In this regard, they observed how geese, upon seeing a displaced egg near the nest, would use their beaks to roll the egg back into place. If the egg was removed, the animal continued to generate the same motor behavior, as if the egg were still there. And if other objects with the same shape (such as a golf ball) were used, exactly the same thing happened.

Another of Tinbergen's investigations was that he studied the behavior of seagulls. For example, he observed that shortly after the eggs hatched, the parents removed the shells from the nest. After conducting several experiments, he demonstrated that this behavior had a specific function and that was to keep the young safe from predators.

He also studied the behavior and the tendency of the youngest gulls to peck at the red spot on the beak of the dominant gull, a behavior that induces the parents to regurgitate the food.a behavior that induces the parents to regurgitate food so that they can eat. Tinbergen conducted an experiment that involved offering hatchlings a variety of cardboard gull heads that varied in beak shape and color. For each combination of shape and color, he measured the hatchlings' preferences by counting the pecks they gave in a given time.

What Tinbergen found in his study with the gull hatchlings is that they are born with a preference for elongated yellow and red-spotted things that was built into their behavioral repertoire as a matter of course. In other words, gull hatchlings come equipped with specific genes that determine and favor a particular behavior in a specific habitat.

With this type of observations, a new branch of knowledge a new branch of knowledge appeared that draws on two scientific disciplines, biology and psychology, giving rise to what we know today as ethology.giving rise to what we know today as ethology.

His legacy

Many of Tinbergen's works have become classics today, both in comparative psychology and in biology, including, in addition to those already mentioned, other studies by him on the behavior of spiny fish, wasps and butterflies.

However, Tinbergen reached the pinnacle of his recognition when he received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1973, which he shared with his colleagues. in 1973, which he shared with his colleagues Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch. As a curiosity, it should be noted that the money received for the award was used to help in the research of childhood autism.

Tinbergen also received other awards such as the Swammerdam Medal and several honorary degrees from prestigious universities such as Edinburgh and the University of Leicester. In addition, he was a fellow of the Royal Society in England and a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States.

Bibliographical references:

• Bolhuis, J. J. (2004). Biography of a brilliant birdwatcher.
• Burkhardt, R. W. (2005). Patterns of behavior: Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen, and the founding of ethology. University of Chicago Press.