Animal Behavior

Behavior Basics

Who were the first scientists thought to have studied animal behavior?

Aristotle (384–322 B.C.E.) wrote ten volumes on the Natural History of Animals. The Roman naturalist Pliny (23–79 C.E.; also called Pliny the Elder) also extensively observed and recorded organisms for his book Natural History. In more recent times, naturalist Charles Darwin (1809–1882) recorded (in his journal) the behavior of the marine iguanas of the Galapagos Islands. Darwin also published a book, The Expression of the Emotions of Man and Animals (1872), in which he showed how natural selection would favor specialized behavioral patterns for survival.