Mother, I’m a leaf

How does a Cuckoo know it's a Cuckoo? What's the easiest way to get a Nobel Prize? And just how inanimate is a tortoise?

It's Biology Week everyone and school is in session as we team up with the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour to talk all about the science of animals doing what animals do.

Come for the ethology chat, stay for the parts where we work out which animal would make the best chef & how many Arctic Terns we'd take in a fight...

For more about the Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour who we partnered with to make this episode, visit their website at: https://www.asab.org/

 

Note on Konrad Lorenz: 

Konrad Lorenz was one of the major founders of ethology and is famous for his work on imprinting geese, as mentioned in this podcast. However, there are also elements of Lorenz’s work that have been called into question in recent years, mainly in relation to his use of Nazi-type terminology and potential ideologies in relation to some of his work and extrapolation to human behaviour. We wanted to bring this to the attention of our listeners, as it raises important questions around the influence of society and individual bias on the development of scientific understanding. If you would like to read more about this you can read an article in Animal Behaviour about Lorenz here.