Konrad Lorenz - Week 2


Konrad Lorenz (1903-1989) is thought of as one of the founders of modern ethology. He shared the Nobel Prize in 1973 with Niko Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. 


Lorenz studied instinctive behaviours - 'the inherent inclination of a living organism towards a particular complex behaviour.' Two of his chosen animals were greylag geese and jackdaws. It is his work on geese imprinting that we will look at this week.


 Birds that leave the nest early often 'imprint' on the first moving thing they see (think Fly away home). Lorenz didn't discover this phenomenon, but he did become known for describing this as an instinctive behaviour. This imprinting does not happen in human babies as they are born immobile and therefore do not need to form the attachment straight away.

 You are going to look at his work and discuss his findings, potential implications and the ethical considerations. Please do this by answering the following questions in the comments section (feel free to reply to other people and discuss if you want to!)
  1. What was Konrad Lorenz's experiment with greylag geese?
  2. What did Konrad Lorenz find?
  3. Why do you think this is important work? 
  4. Was his experiment ethical? Why do you think this? (No right or wrong answer - so long as you can justify!)
Some potentially useful links:


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