Physchology - Niko Tinbergen - British Zoologist

Niko Tinbergen

Niko is a British zoologist, a founder with Konrad Lorenz of the science of ethology. (Ethology is the study of animal behaviour in its natural environment.)

He researched the importance of both natural and learned behaviour for survival and used animal behaviour as a basis for opinions on human violence and aggression. Niko and Konrad together studied the behaviour of birds, Tinbergen in particular did research on the behaviour of gulls.

In Niko's research of gulls he observed that shortly after their young hatch, the parents remove the eggshells from the nest. He then did experiments showing that the reason for this behaviour is to keep the young hidden from predators. He also studied that young gulls peck at the red spot on the parent gull's beak, which gets the parents to regurgitate food for them. He offered naive young chicks a range of cardboard dummy gull heads varying in bill and spot color, and shape. For each color and shape combination Tinbergen measured the likings of the baby chicks by counting their pecks in a standard time. Through this he discovered that naive gull chicks are born with a built-in preference for long, yellow things with red spots. This means their genes equip the young birds with detailed knowledge of the world and where food comes out of adult herring gull beaks.

John Bowlby is well known as the co-founder of the attachment theory. In his research on attachment Bowlby drew heavily on the work of Tinbergen and other ethologists. Tinbergen experienced depression and decided to consult with Bowlby. Over the years Tinbergen worked with Bowlby on his issues and even consulted Bowlby when one of Tinbergen's children showed possible signs of an autistic disorder.