ethologist

American  

[ee-thah-luhj-ist] / iˈθɑ lədʒ ɪst /

noun

• ethologists
  plural

1. a specialist in or student of ethology.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• ethologists
  plural

Explanation

A scientist who studies how animals behave is an ethologist. Are you fascinated by the waggle dance that bees do to show other bees where to find food? You might want to consider becoming an ethologist! A zoologist who specializes in animal behaviors is an ethologist, and their field is called ethology. These scientists are interested in the characteristic behaviors of different animals, especially how they act in their natural environments. An ethologist might study courtship rituals among various species, compare the way birds express aggression, or investigate animals that exhibit altruistic behavior. The word ethologist derives from the Greek ethos, "character."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

ethologist ethologists

Yet studies show that flat-faced dogs possess “kindchenschema” or “baby schema,” a term coined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to describe infantile features that elicit caregiving reactions.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 28, 2025

“For decades there has been a debate about whether animals are capable of such a level of abstraction,” said study leader Marianna Boros, a neuroscientist and ethologist at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 22, 2024

“They have a lot of fur, so it was not easy to understand where their necks were,” says lead author Erika Zaid, an ethologist at La Trobe.

From Science Magazine ● Jan. 25, 2024

“It is really surprising that nobody else noticed this before,” says Patrizia d’Ettorre, an ethologist at Sorbonne Paris North University, France.

From Scientific American ● Dec. 2, 2022

The first person to be known as an ethologist was an Austrian, Konrad Lorenz.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall

Much of that, as it happens, is regarded as nonsense by ethologists — scientists of animal behavior — who focus on dogs.

From Washington Post ● Aug. 10, 2021

It’s long been known that female elephants cooperate, but before ethologists began systematically studying free-roaming horses, few people suspected that cooperating mares were capable not only of waging such a fight—but of winning it.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2015

By studying other species, as comparative psychologists and ethologists do, we may in time be able to trace the biological roots and evolutionary history of our abilities to think, use language, and feel emotions.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 26, 2013

As the ethologists have told us, every species has its distinctive world, its Umwelt, the peculiar space in which it feels that it lives.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 24, 2010

Then there are other ethologists who also go to the home of the animals they wish to study but do not do experiments.

From "My Life with the Chimpanzees" by Jane Goodall