Discoveries concerning organisation and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns
Lorenz examined instinctive behaviour in birds and animals, and how behavioural patterns evolve, particularly with respect to the role played by ecological factors and the adaptive value of behaviour for species survival. One of his most well-known investigations was in the 1930s. It involved grey-lag geese and how they can imprint on other than their own parents. The process of imprinting is the one by which some birds bond with the first moving object that they see within the first hours of hatching, whether it is of their own kind or not. Lorenz shared the 1973 award with ethologist Karl von Frisch and biologist and ornithologist Nikolaas Tinbergen.
