Tinbergen's four questions

Tinbergen's four questions are a way to help you better understand animals, like birds, fish, or bees. They were created by a man named Nikolaas Tinbergen in the 1940s.

The four questions help us learn about the behaviour of animals. They are:
1. What is the function or purpose of a behaviour?
2. How does the behaviour develop (what causes it to occur)?
3. How does it vary among individuals and groups?
4. What is the evolutionary history of the behaviour (how has it changed over time)?

Question 1 helps us understand why animals do certain things - like why some birds build nests or why some fish swim in schools.

Question 2 asks how a behaviour develops. This can mean anything from how a bird learns to fly to how fishes can remember where to find food.

Question 3 is about how behaviours differ between individuals and groups. For example, some birds may fly higher than others or some fish may be able to swim faster than others.

Question 4 looks at the evolutionary history of a behaviour. This is when scientists look back at how a behaviour has changed or stayed the same over time. For example, some bird species may have had different nesting habits thousands of years ago compared to now.

By understanding the answers to all four of these questions, we can gain a better understanding of animals and their behaviours.