The Importance of Niko Tinbergen’s four questions

Alan Mc Michael

Writer

The publication of the origin of species changed the world’s perception of the animal kingdom. In the closing chapter of this revolutionary publication Darwin himself made a prediction about the future of psychology, that studying why behaviours evolved would give a more in depth understanding of animal behaviour. In retrospect Darwin appeared to be right. The dawn of the twentieth century gave rise to ethology; the biological perspective of behaviour. Ethologists such as Tinbergen argued that, in order to fully understand the natural complexities of natural animal behaviour it was essential to view those animals in their natural environment, not pressing levers and being rewarded with food. This train of thought led Tinbergen to develop “the four whys.”

Black headed gull waiting for offspring to hatch before removing and abandoning the empty egg shells

The first of Tinbergen’s question is concerned with the function of the behaviour under investigation, and how this behaviour contributes to the life of the animal. Tinbergen noted that black headed gulls throw the empty egg shells out of their nests as soon as the baby chicks have hatched. Now, from a Darwinian perspective, such behaviour simply seems peculiar. Surely the time spent removing these shells could be better spent? Perhaps gathering food or building shelter. However, through experimental testing, Tinbergen showed that there is a function to this behaviour. By building artificial nests some containing empty eggshells and others not, Tinbergen noted that those nests which contained empty eggshells were significantly more likely to be attacked by predators such as crows that fly overhead. Thus, it can be seen that such behaviour contributes greatly to the life of the black headed gull. Although removing the shells seems to be time consuming, it also appears to be fundamental aspect of survival. The function here is that by throwing out the eggshells, the animal is increasing the survival chances of the newly born chicks, every parent wants to protect their children from danger and therefore, the function of the behaviour contributes greatly to the life of the animal.