Ethology is the biological study of animal behavior. It derives from the Greek root ethos, which, in normal English usage, refers to the manner of living, or customary behavior, of a social entity. One may therefore speak of the ethos of a particular sports club, small town, or professional organization, for example. By the same token, ethologists are concerned with the ethos of animals: their way of behaving.

Ethology traces its history to the early decades of the twentieth century, especially the work of the Austrian physician Konrad Lorenz (1903–1989), Dutch biologist Niko Tinbergen (1907–1988), and German entomologist Karl von Frisch (1886–1982); in recognition of their achievements, these three shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1973. The characteristics of ethology as a scientific discipline can be appreciated by comparing it to one of its well-known counterparts, comparative psychology.

Whereas comparative psychology is primarily concerned with understanding human behavior, such...