Nikolaas Tinbergen

Nikolaas Tinbergen was a Dutch biologist whose experimental study of animal behavior helped establish modern ethology. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning the organization and elicitation of individual and social behavior patterns.

Ethology: The scientific study of animal behavior, especially in natural settings and through evolutionary and comparative approaches. Tinbergen helped establish this field through experiments on behavior in animals’ natural environments.
Supernormal stimulus: An exaggerated cue that elicits a stronger response than the natural stimulus it resembles. Tinbergen demonstrated this effect when herring gull chicks responded strongly to conspicuous artificial beak markings.
Konrad Lorenz: An Austrian zoologist whose studies of animal behavior helped establish modern ethology. Lorenz and Tinbergen jointly shaped ethology and shared the 1973 Nobel Prize.
Tinbergen's four questions: A framework that distinguishes mechanistic, developmental, functional, and evolutionary explanations of behavior. Tinbergen’s 1963 essay made these complementary questions a lasting guide for behavioral research.
Fixed action pattern: A stereotyped sequence of behavior triggered by a particular stimulus and often continuing once begun. Tinbergen used these sequences to investigate how specific stimuli elicit behavior.
Herring gull: A large gull species whose breeding behavior and chick responses have been studied extensively. Tinbergen used gull chicks’ pecking at parental beak markings to test stimulus-response mechanisms.
Karl von Frisch: An Austrian ethologist known for research on honeybee sensory perception and communication. Von Frisch shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Tinbergen and Lorenz for work on animal behavior.
Evolutionary biology: The study of how populations and species change over generations through evolutionary processes. Tinbergen linked behavioral function and evolutionary history to the study of animal behavior.
Sign stimulus: A feature of a stimulus that triggers a particular behavioral response in an animal. His experiments showed how exaggerated sign stimuli can elicit stronger responses than natural cues.
Three-spined stickleback: A small fish whose breeding behavior includes territorial displays, nest building, and parental care. Tinbergen used male sticklebacks to study how visual cues trigger territorial attacks.

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