The farmer, the hunter, and the census taker: Three distinct views of animal behavior

The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between evolutionary theory and ethology in the work of Konrad Lorenz, Niko Tinbergen and V.C. Wynne- Edwards, the farmer, hunter, and census taker of the title respectively. I am especially interested in the idea of the ethologists Lorenz and Tinbergen that animal behavior and human behavior were equally appropriated subjects of biological analysis. Their approach is contrasted with Wynne-Edwards's group selective account of the evolution of social behavior. Finally, I argue that Wynne-Edwards's dogged commitment to group selection theory helped create the theoretical space within which subsequent researchers could develop more careful analyses.