Niko Tinbergen - week 3


Nikolaas (Niko) Tinbergen was a Dutch biologist and ornithologist who shared a Nobel Prize with Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch in 1973. He is also thought of as one of the founders of modern ethology. 

The majority of Tinbergen's work focused on supernormal stimuli - an exaggerated version of a stimulus that a response is already known for. His two studies focused on eggs and stickleback fish.

One of his first studies was also conducted on greylag geese. He found that mother geese would automatically scoop and roll back any egg that fell out of a nest less than 1m away. This retrieving movement with their neck would continue even if the egg was removed midway through the process. A movement like this that continues even without the original stimulus is called a fixed action pattern. However, as you can see in the below video - you can see that mother geese will gather anything that could be an egg!



Your task is to look at two of his other studies. The first is his work on seagulls beaks and pecking rate. The second is his work on territorial sticklebacks.

You need to provide a mini summary of both studies (almost like a scientific abstract), including the method and results. Finish with a comment of what interested you most about the study.


Some potentially useful links:
http://www.garysturt.free-online.co.uk/tinbergn.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJ9oujmuVd0
http://birdnote.org/show/little-red-spot-gulls-bill
http://www.nature.com/news/2009/090324/full/news.2009.186.html

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