ethologist

American  

[ee-thah-luhj-ist] / iˈθɑ lədʒ ɪst /

noun

plural

ethologists

1. a specialist in or student of ethology.

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Explanation

A scientist who studies how animals behave is an ethologist. Are you fascinated by the waggle dance that bees do to show other bees where to find food? You might want to consider becoming an ethologist! A zoologist who specializes in animal behaviors is an ethologist, and their field is called ethology. These scientists are interested in the characteristic behaviors of different animals, especially how they act in their natural environments. An ethologist might study courtship rituals among various species, compare the way birds express aggression, or investigate animals that exhibit altruistic behavior. The word ethologist derives from the Greek ethos, "character."

Example Sentences

Yet studies show that flat-faced dogs possess “kindchenschema” or “baby schema,” a term coined by ethologist Konrad Lorenz to describe infantile features that elicit caregiving reactions.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025

“Dr. Goodall’s discoveries as an ethologist revolutionized science,” the Jane Goodall Institute said in a statement.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 1, 2025

“They have a lot of fur, so it was not easy to understand where their necks were,” says lead author Erika Zaid, an ethologist at La Trobe.

From Science Magazine • Jan. 25, 2024

In 1989, when elephant ethologist Joyce Poole began carrying out surveys of three East African elephant populations to understand the impact that heavy poaching was having on them, she quickly noted several stark trends.

From Scientific American • Oct. 21, 2021

Ecologists have since employed more sophisticated theoretical tools to produce new, lower population estimates; ethologist Dale Lott put the number of bison in “primitive America” at twenty-four to twenty- seven million in 2002.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann