Nikolaas Tinbergen was born in The Hague, Netherlands, on April 15, 1907. As
a young boy, he was not interested in academics, neither high school nor
college, so he scraped by, doing just enough to pass. He spent much of his time
just observing the abundant wildlife in their natural habitat of Holland. Opposed to attending college, Niko's father sent him to spend time with a
famous experimental biologist, Professor J. Thienemann who shared with him "the
massive autumn migration of birds, the wild Moose, and the famous Wanderdünen."
( Tinbergen, 1975). Soon after returning to Holland, Tinbergen made the decision
to study biology at Leiden University. After he completed his years there, he
became engaged to Elisabeth Rutten. Knowing that he would have to soon support
this woman, he decided to use his chance study of Beewolves (digger wasps)and
their remarkable homing abilities. Next, he and his new wife left with a small
group from the Netherlands for two years to live with a small isolated Eskimo
tribe in Angmagssalik. Upon his return to Holland, Niko took a minor instructor's job where he was
to teach comparative anatomy and to organize a course in animal behavior for
undergraduates. He engaged in a lot of fieldwork and further studies on
Beewolves, insects, and birds at this time, and he made his famous observation
of stickleback courtship. Tinbergen developed a lifelong habit of carefully
observing animals in their natural environment. It has been through the work of
Niko Tinbergen that the study of Ethology has gained much respect and
legitimacy. In 1936, Konrad Lorenz was invited to Leiden for a small symposium in
"Instinct." Tinbergen and Lorenz met and automatically "clicked." Niko and his
wife accepted an invitation to stay with the Lorenz's for four months. This is
where their lifelong friendship and allied research became so strong. Tinbergen
became a student of Lorenz, but they both learned equally as much from the
other. Tinbergen explained their working relationship as, "Konrad's
extraordinary vision and enthusiasm were supplemented and fertilized by my
critical sense, my inclination to think his ideas through, and my irrepressible
urge to check our 'hunches' by experimentation" (Tinbergen, 1975). Following their initial research expedition, Tinbergen spent another full and
intense year of work with Lorenz. Their colaboration was interrupted for two
years because of WWII, but soon after they were invited to the United States to
lecture on their findings in animal behavior. Next, Tinbergen joined the faculty
at Oxford, where he published many books, both on his own and combined with
other's works, including The Herring Gull's World (1953) and Curious Naturalists
(1958). In 1973, along with Karl Von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz, he became the
first behaviorist to win the Nobel Prize in medicine/physiology for their
"discoveries in the field of the organization and occurrence of individual and
social behavioral patterns" in the animal world (Associate Press, 1988). Tinbergen spent the later years of his life using ethological methods to
study the socially important disease, Early Childhood Autism, with his wife and
Professor Jerome S. Butler. He found this to be the most important and
meaningful research of his life. Tinbergen said: " I have become a kind of
missionary .. leaving my birdies along and applying my hard-won expertise to
solving a human problem." (Gale Literary Databases, 1999). "My only regret is
that I am not ten years younger so that I could be more actively join him (Dr.
Bruner) in developing his center of child ethology in Oxford" (Tinbergen, 1975).
Tinbergen and Lorenz saw it essential to study an animal in its natural
environment. It is now known as the Ethological Approach. Two major components
of animal behavior are Fixed Action Patterns and the Innate Releasing
Mechanisms. A fixed action pattern (FAP) can be described as a complex behavior
that is a triggered response to relatively complex stimuli (releaser). After the
stimulation, it does not require any more stimuli for the continuation of the
event. This can be demonstrated by Lorenz's work with the Greylag goose. When a
Greylag's egg is removed from her nest, she will extend her neck and roll it
back in with her bill. When the egg is removed once the neck extension and
rolling movement has already started, the goose will still continue as if the
egg were still there. An innate releasing mechanism (IRM) links the sensory
system to the motor system so that the releaser activates the FAP. This can be
demonstrated with newborn animals. The red dot on a Herring Gull's beak that
releases the food begging response of the young. In turn, when a young chick
pecks at this red spot (releaser), it triggers her to feed the young (FAP). From his first observations of sticklebacks, Tinbergen has gained some
valuable knowledge about reaction chains. A reaction chain is a natural response
that begins with one initial stimuli and is then continued on by additional
stimuli. These later stimuli are necessary to create the desired response. In
the mating ritual of the stickleback, the male begins with a zigzag dance that
in turn releases a special display movement of the female. There is a complex
form that this ritual takes on, paying close attention to the appropriate
stimulus. This dance can be changed and often responses and reactions overlap.
There are deviations from the ideal sequence, but the actions are by no means
random (Scott 1972). Tinbergen's research on digger wasp's (Philanthus triangulum) homing
abilities revealed that they build many different nests, but are always able to
return to the correct nest. He showed the importance of visual cues that enables
the female wasp to return to the nesting site. To feed, a wasp will fly from
flower to flower in search of bees and will react to moving objects, but will
not prey on anything but bees. It has to first sense the correct odor before it
will sting and kill the bee (Tinbergen 1975). Tinbergen is famous for his demonstration of the Hawk/Goose effect. When a
goose or non-predatory bird flies overhead a chick will show no response, but if
it is a hawk they chick crouched as if in danger. Initially they show signs of
alarm behavior at all things overhead, but the chicks quickly loose their
general fear for common birds and objects. This was initially thought to be an
inborn ability to tell the difference, but it is now proven to be learned. It is
a habituatory response of the chick. The chick begins by crouching at everything
until it is determined that some overhead objects, like the goose, are harmless.
Although Tinbergen did post-doctoral research under Konrad Lorenz, they are
very different in their interpretation of results. Tinbergen is famous for his
in depth, field, and laboratory research and the way in which he tediously
examined all of the information to verify theories. One of Tinbergen's strongest
contributions is that he has found ways to test his own, and other's hypotheses
by quite ingenious experiments. He examined the fixed action pattern in grey lag
goose and the strength of the key stimuli by use of dummy eggs. He describes the
difference between Lorenz and himself as," I am more pedestrian ¼ Lorenz writes
a big book about aggression and comes up with very shrewd suppositions. But much
of it is unproven. He shakes things up. I investigate. I worked on aggression in
animals long before Konrad, but I was very cautious. I didn't write a big book
about it" (Gale Literary Databases, 1999). A former Tinbergen student describes
his methods of research as, "[Most biologists] wear a white coat or Wellington
boots, one or the other. Tinbergen does both. In my book, that makes him the
most important person in this field this century"( Gale Literary Databases,
1999). In his final years, Tinbergen, along with his wife, began to study autism in
children. He used his ethological approach to study these children. Since many
of them do not speak, they have focused on the children's nonverbal behavior.
Although, many members of the medical community have disagreed, Tinbergen argued
that autism may be the result of the parents' behavior , as opposed to a genetic
problem as previously thought. In addition to contributing a great deal in the
field of animal behavior, Tinbergen sought to have Ethology include learning
more about the human race. He spent nearly his whole life studying animals, yet
saw his only redemption as the small amount of work he had put into studying
humans and real problems at the end of his career.
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1925 Studied with Professor J.
Thienemann at Kurishe Nehrung
1932 Married Elisabeth Rutten
1932 PhD at
State University of Leiden
1935 Given an Instructor's job at Leiden
University
1937 Post doctorate work under Konrad Lorenz & Dutch
Meterological expedition to Greenland
1949 Joined faculty of Oxford as a
professor of animal behavior
1950 Published The Study of Instinct
1953 Published The Herring Gull's World
1958 Published Curious
Nationalist
1973 Awarded the Noble Prize with Konrad Lorenz and Karl
VonFrisch
1977 Retired from the faculty of Oxford
1988 Death
Gale Literary Databases (1999) Nikolaas Tinbergen (Biography)
Retrieved from theWorld Wide Web on September 28, 1999.
http://www.galenet.com/servlet/GLD/hits?c¼&s=1&r=d&o=DataType&n=10&1=d&NA=tinbergen
Scott, John Paul (1972) Animal Behavior, Chicago: University of Chicago
Press. pp 151-56.
Tinbergen, Niko. (1975) Autobiography: Nobel Laureates
Retrieved from the World Wide Web on September 28, 1999.
http://wwwlnobel.se/laureates/medicine - 1973-3-autobio.html
Tinbergen,
Niko (1975) The Animal and its World Vol. 1, Massachusetts: Harvard
University Press. pp 76-78, 103-105.