Question

Which of the following terms best describes the biological study of animal behaviour?
1. Ethology
2. Ethnology
3. Entomology
4. Etiology

Answer 1

Correct Answer - Option 1 : Ethology

​The correct answer is Ethology.

• Ethology is best describes the biological study of animal behaviour.
• Ethology is the scientific study of animal behaviour, usually with a focus on behaviour under natural conditions, and viewing behaviour as an evolutionarily adaptive trait.
• The term "Ethology" derives from the Greek language ethos meaning "character" and logia meaning "the study of". The term was first popularized by American myrmecologist (a person who studies ants) William Morton Wheeler in 1902.
• The first modern ethologist was Charles Darwin (1809–1882) explored the expression of emotions in animals.
• Ethology is a rapidly growing field. Since the dawn of the 21st-century researchers have re-examined and reached new conclusions in many aspects of animal communication, emotions, culture, learning, and sexuality that the scientific community long thought it understood. New fields, such as neuroethology, have developed.
• Ethology combines laboratory and field science, with a strong relation to some other disciplines such as neuroanatomy, ecology, and evolutionary biology. Ethologists typically show interest in a behavioural process rather than in a particular animal group, and often study one type of behaviour, such as aggression, in a number of unrelated species.

Term	Description
Ethnology	Ethnology is the branch of anthropology that deals with the study of the origin and descent of human races and ethnic groups and their distribution and relationships.
Entomology	Entomology 'insect', and logia 'study of' is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology.
Etiology	The Etiology of a disease is its cause or origin. Etiology is also the name for the study of the causes of diseases. It can also refer to the study of the cause of things in other fields, such as philosophy and physics. But it is most commonly used in the context of medicine.