Why measure behaviour?

In addition to its intrinsic interest, the study of behaviour is both intellectually challenging and practically important. Animals use their freedom to move and interact, both with their environment and with one another, as one of the most important ways in which they adapt themselves to the conditions in which they live. These adaptations take many different forms such as finding food, avoiding being eaten, finding a suitable place to live, attracting a mate and caring for young. Each species has special requirements, and the same problem is often solved in different ways by different species.

Even though much is already known about such adaptations and the ways in which they are refined as individuals gather experience, a great deal remains to be discovered about the diversity and functions of behaviour. The principles involved in the evolution of increasingly complex behaviour and the role that behaviour itself has played in shaping the direction of evolution are still not well understood. Explanations of how behaviour patterns have arisen and what they are for will only come from the comparative study of different species and by relating behaviour to the social and ecological conditions in which an animal lives.

Animals are studied for many reasons (Driscoll & Bateson, 1988). Medical research has as its goals outcomes that are of direct benefit to humans. Such work is readily justified in the eyes of the public because its usefulness is obvious.