Nicholas Tinbergen

April 15, 1907, Mr.. - December 21, 1988
Dutch-English Zoopsychology and ethologist Nicholas Tinbergen was born in The Hague and was the third of five children in the family of Dirk Cornelis Tinbergen, a school teacher of grammar and history, and Jeannette (van Ek), Tinbergen. Older brother, T., Yang, was a physicist, at a later stage economies. Since the family lived only an hour's walk from the sea coast, in Nicholas early manifested a love of nature: he enjoyed collecting sea shells, bird watching, fascinated by tourism.
. After graduating from the local secondary school ( 'I hardly get out of it' - he recalled later) T
. gathered at the university, but he was advised to start dealing with practical work. Friends of the family persuaded the father of T. send the boy to Vogelvarte-Rozziten - Ornithological Center, where the birds were observed and were first developed methods of their banding. After working in this institution for several months, T. felt sufficiently prepared to continue their education and enrolled at Leiden University in the biology department. Listening to the lectures of teachers, as a naturalist Jean Verviers, reading additional literature, T. deepen their knowledge of animal behavior. Influenced by studies of the behavior of bees Karl von Frisch, he chose the topic of his doctoral dissertation question about the features of behavior of bees - the killer wasps being monitored in the summer his parents' home in Halshorste near the North Sea.
. Based on his observations, he wrote a 'concise but interesting thesis as thesis' (the most concise ever undertaken at the Faculty of Leiden) and received a doctorate of philosophy in 1932
. In the same year he married Elizabeth A. Rutten, they had two sons and three daughters. In terms of methodology dissertation is an example of his manner to conduct research: to find out everything about the behavior of animals in their natural habitat through a patient monitoring, . and then conduct experiments to confirm their theories,
. For example, studying killer bees wasps, it is deleted or damaged natural obstacles near the location of colonies and monitored the behavior of insects, was able to show that they find their way home with the help of visual landmarks on the ground.
. Shortly after the completion of its work in order to obtain the degree of T
. and his wife went along with the meteorological Dutcha expedition to Greenland, where they spent 14 months among the Eskimos, studying the behavior of arctic birds and mammals. Upon his return to Leiden in late 1933,. T. was adopted by the teacher at the University. Two years later he was invited to organize a course for final year students on the study of animal behavior, . which was based on a study of selected animals and their living conditions: stickleback (small fish, . for which he saw as a child), . insects and birds Halshorsta, . where T,
. established a permanent research station.
Although this time T. conducted research on instinctive behavior (mainly pairing) of a number of species, his work had outlined a coherent structure. In 1936, Mr.. a workshop in Leiden, he met with Konrad Lorenz. This meeting was a starting point for fundamental work in the field of ethology (the science that studies the behavior of animals in natural conditions). Looking back on this unexpected meeting in the later years, T. said: "We immediately just came to each other ... an amazing intuition Conrad and his enthusiasm were fruitfully supplemented by my critical spirit, a tendency to get to the essence of his ideas and my uncontrollable desire to check the 'suspect' by experimentation '.
When T. and his family spent their summers in a house near Vienna for Lorentz, two scientists began developing the foundations of the theory of ethological research. Over a long period of cooperation, they formulated a position on that instinct is not simply a response to environmental stimuli, but arises due to impulse or impulses emanating from the animal itself. Instinctive behavior, they believed, includes a set of stereotyped movements - the so-called fixed nature of the action (PCD) - which is so different, how has the specific anatomical features. Animal carries PCD in response to a specific 'liberating' stimulus from the environment, which can be highly specific. In addition, they suggested that much of the behavior of animals depends on the collision impulses. For example, a male stickleback is a female in his 'nest' a kind of zig-zag dance. T. showed that the PCD reflects the conflict between the instinct to protect its territory and sexual instinct.
In other circumstances, the conflict between the desires may lead to a shift in response to the appearance of an entirely different instinct. A typical example occurs when an animal protecting its territory, faced with the attacking animal, which turns out to be too strong for a direct confrontation. As a result of the conflict between the desire to attack and the desire to withdraw may cause a third form of behavior, such as manifested in the rapid intake stockpiled forage or flirting.
Beginning of the Second World War interrupted the joint work T. and Lorenz. After the German occupation of T. continued teaching at Leiden, but in 1942. was arrested for protesting against the dismissal of three members of the Faculty of Jewish. Rest of the war he spent in internment camps. After his release he returned to university and was appointed professor of experimental biology.
In 1947, Mr.. T. lectured in the U.S., visited in 1938, and two years later - in the University of Oxford. Staying in Oxford, he founded the magazine 'Bihevior' ( 'Behavior'), and continued to work in the newly created department to study the behavior of animals. In 1955, Mr.. He became a British subject, and after 5 years began to lecture on animal behavior and was appointed professor, was elected a member of Wolfson College in 1966
In the 50's and 60's. intensive research gulls T. thoroughly developed by them and confirmed the pre-war theory Lorenz. Being engaged in teaching, he has influenced many generations of British ethologists.
T. Lorenz and Frisch split in 1973. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for discoveries concerning the establishment of individual and social behavior and its organization '. In a speech at the presentation Virgil H. Kronholm of the Karolinska Institute said, . what, . although premium 'three observers for the animals' (as a joke TA) was unexpected, . it reflects the value of the winners not only for Ethology, . but also for 'social, . psychosomatic medicine and psychiatry ',
. In his Nobel lecture T. spoke about their research ethology connection with stress-related illnesses, including autism, early childhood - a disease which he continued to explore jointly with his wife after leaving Oxford University in 1974
. In 1973, Mr.
. T. Jean was awarded the Medal of the Netherlands Association Svammerdama progress of natural, medical and surgical sciences. He - a member of many scientific societies. In addition to numerous publications, T. with Hugh Falkusom created for the British Broadcasting Corporation documentary 'Signals for survival' ( 'Signals for Survival')