This paper presents a synthesis by relating the history of the occurrence, development and consecration of Ethology, as independent branch of biological sciences. Throughout history aspects of animal behavior were studied by many naturalists and zoologist. Many thinkers of antiquity, have studied animal behaviour long before the word ‘ethology’ was introduced. For instance Aristotle, Plato, Chrysippos, Plutarch, have left written evidence about their concerns and their contemporaries attempts theorizing concerning animal behavioral motivation. Ethology has its scientific roots in the work of Charles Darwin and of American, German and French naturalist, including Charles O. Whitman, Oskar Heinroth, Wallace Craig, H.S. Jennings, Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffon, Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, Georges Cuvier, René Antoine, Ferchault de Réaumur, Piere Gassendi, René Descartes, Charles-Georges Le Roy, Georges-Frédéric Cuvier, Pierre Flourens. Although many naturalists have studied aspects of animal behaviour through the centuries, the modern discipline of ethology is usually considered to have begun as a discrete discipline with the work of Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and by Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch, joint awardees of the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In Romania, research regarding animal behavior have started in the second half of the twentieth century. The works published by M. Beniuc (1970; 1971), Elena Chenzbraun (1973; 1978), and M. Cociu (1980; 1982) and, mainly, works: Salantiu et al, 1998, Palica, Coman (1998), Mihai Cociu (1999), Acatincai (2009) contributed to development and popularization of ethology in our country. Ethology is a combination of laboratory and field science, Ethologists are typically interested 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 animals. Understanding ethology or animal behaviour can be important in animal training. Considering the natural behaviours of different species or breeds enables the trainer to select the individuals best suited to perform the required task. It also enables the trainer to encourage the performance of naturally occurring behaviours and also the discontinuance of undesirable behaviours.

history, development, Ethology

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