Karl von Frisch (1886–1982) was a professor of zoology at the University of Munich, and his favorite subject of study was bees. As a sensory physiologist and neuroethologist, he highlighted two key behaviours in bees that advanced scientific understanding: their spatial orientation and the secrets of their communication. For this […]
N. Emilio Baldaccini
31 posts
In Italy today, two different populations of this carnivore exist, both of which, however, eat very little meat and largely prefer vegetarian diets. Looking back, we see even more successive bear populations, with species spanning much of the Pleistocene, starting from its earliest part (Late Villafranchian, 1.8 million years ago). […]
Among the drivers of behaviour, external stimuli play a highly significant role, evoking responses that are often essential for an individual’s survival. Their importance is such that selective adaptation processes have favoured stereotyped and immediate responses to certain types of stimuli, classifying them as innate behaviours that the individual does […]
Migratory birds have remarkably consistent departure times from their breeding and wintering areas year after year, so much so that we refer to “migratory calendars” that define their different populations. Long-distance migratory species are especially punctual in their arrival and departure, often occurring on the same day or within the […]
According to Konrad Lorenz, Charles Otis Whitman and Oskar Heinroth, the first American and the other German, were two significant precursors of the modern study of animal behaviour. Active in the early 1900s, they were interested in birds. While Whitman wrote a monumental work on the pigeon (Columba livia), ducks […]