Krebs, J.R. & Davies, N.B.
- Testing hypotheses in behavioural ecology
A rigorous scientific approach to the function of behaviour will involve four stages: observation, hypotheses, predictions and test. The first two, observation and hypotheses, often go hand in hand. It may take many years getting to know a particular species before it is possible to ask good questions about its behaviour and ecology. Niko Tinbergen's work (1953) on the herring gull, Larus argentatus, was the result of over 20 years' painstaking observations of the bird's behavioural repertoire.
