Reviews

The Study Of Instinct by Nikolaas Tinbergen

adamjcalhoun's review

5.0

If you want to understand how animals behave, read this book. A little long in the tooth but surprisingly relevant, Tinbergen laid out how we study animals and provided many, many examples of interesting behaviors that animals can do. Wasps can build complex underground and aboveground nests - how do they manage to do it with their tiny brains? How do gulls distinguish between real eggs and rocks? Why do fish sometimes look like they would blend into the background and sometimes look so vibrant? Tinbergen explores the foundations for the science of behavior (ethology) and has tons of fun little illustrations packed in as well.