Which of the following terms best describes the biological study of animal behaviour?

​The correct answer is Ethology.

Key Points

• 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.

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