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Describing Behavior -- Not yours, the animal's!There is a big difference between describing what is going on and what the animal is doing. Here is a simple example: We want you to do the second type of description. Poor entry:1:00 -- Went to the Green to watch squirrels. None around, so I went to Lincoln Field. Saw one and walked over to it. It ran away, up the tree. Looked like it was afraid of me. Sat up in the tree moving its tail angrily. After a while a friend came by and we both watched the squirrel. We moved away and it came down the tree to look for food. It ran across the grass to another tree and went up it... Better entry:1:15 -- Watching squirrel at Lincoln Field. As I approached it stood up on its hind legs and looked at me. Held its front feet close to its chest and its tail was tight to its back and curled away from its body at the tip. I took another step and it ran to the nearest tree. Running looked like a series of very fast hops - both front feet touch the ground and then both hind feet and then a leap forward about 6-10 inches and lands first front and then hind feet... It spiraled up the tree (head first) and stopped on the first big branch. Facing me again. Same posture as before (on hind feet, front feet up, tail up). But now the tail is flicking rapidly at the end. 1:20 -- Still on branch. Tail flicking. I move about 10 feet away. 1:30 -- Squirrel came down the tree -- wow! he walked down head first..... NOTE: There are several things that make the second example better:1. Lots of details on what the animal was doing and what those things looked like. 2. Recording the time (at an event or periodically) helps you and us get a sense of the pattern of activity and helps us decide if you are missing things that you ought to describe. 3. Lack of anthropocentric "descriptive" language -- e.g., "angry". Simply describe the behavior and the context it happened in. It is tempting to use words like angry, afraid, curious, aggressive and so on to describe behavior. It is, at best, a crude short cut to a detailed description. Often it is just plain misleading since we each might have a different mental picture of what these things look like in a pigeon or cat. Try the following exercise: Describe (or have a friend describe) the behavior of a pet and then of a pigeon or squirrel. Compare the descriptions. You seem to know a lot more about the behavior (and motivation and emotions) of the pet; but do you really? Try the pet again without using anthropocentric words -- describe the behavior in detail. What does an "angry dog" look like? What changes in posture, hair, face, ears, tail, activity, and voice occur between friendly and angry? It is not easy to describe behavior! It takes weeks of watching and taking notes before you can see the repeating patterns of behavior in similar contexts that allow you to begin figuring out what actually is going on for many behaviors. Details, details, details! Return to Top |
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