This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the German Wikipedia.
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz (7 November 1903 – 27 February 1989) was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch. He is often regarded as one of the founders of modern ethology, developing an approach that began with an earlier generation, including his teacher Oskar Heinroth. Before the outbreak of World War II he joined the National Socialist Party, many of whose views he shared. During the war he worked as a military psychologist doing studies of racial hygiene in occupied Poland. In 1944 he was sent to the Eastern Front where he was captured and spent 4 years as a Soviet prisoner of war. After the war he regretted his membership of the Nazi party, although he continued to espouse views in his writings that have been described as anti-democratic and having racist overtones.
Lorenz studied instinctive behavior in animals, especially in greylag geese and jackdaws. Working with geese, he rediscovered the principle of imprinting (originally described by Douglas Spalding in the 19th century) in the behavior of nidifugous birds. In later life, his interest shifted to the study of humans in society.
He wrote numerous books, some of which, such as King Solomon's Ring, On Aggression and Man Meets Dog became popular reading. His last work "Here I Am - Where Are You?" is a summary of his life's work and focuses on his famous studies of greylag geese.Continue Reading »
