Ethogram
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2008-07-03T19:25:57Z
Luckas-bot
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robot Adding: [[ca:Etograma]]
In [[ethology]], an '''ethogram''' is a [[catalogue]] of the discrete behaviors typically employed by a [[species]]. These behaviors are sufficiently [[stereotype]]d that an observer may record the number of such acts, or the amount of time engaged in the behaviours in a [[time budget]].
Rooted in traditions which focus on discrete species-typical [[innate behaviors]], ethograms represent an early stage of investigating the behaviors of a species and the contexts in which they occur. Difficulties in compiling ethograms include rarely performed behaviors, graded displays, inter-individual variation and non-stereotyped behaviors, all of which introduce ambiguities into the [[lexicon]]-like concept of an ethogram.
The behaviors are described (e.g. sit-on-[[haunch]]es) without explicit reference to their purpose (e.g. predator-scanning). A species may use a putative [[threat display]], which ought to be given a descriptive name such as "head forward" or "bracing display", and not "head forward threat" or "bracing threat". The use of the display in [[antagonistic interactions]] should be noted in the ethogram.
==Related Topics==
*[[Behaviour]]
*[[Instinct]]
[[Category:Ethology]]
[[Category:Behavioural sciences]]
[[ca:Etograma]]
[[de:Ethogramm]]
[[lb:Ethogramm]]