Nikolaas Tinbergen

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Lore & Background

Tinbergen was born in The Hague, Netherlands, one of five children of Dirk Cornelis Tinbergen and Jeannette van Eek. His brother Jan Tinbergen won the first Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969, making them the only siblings to each win a Nobel Prize. Another brother, Luuk Tinbergen, was also a noted biologist. Tinbergen studied biology at Leiden University, and his 1932 doctoral thesis examined how female European beewolfs (Philanthus triangulum) use visual landmarks to find their nests. During World War II he was a prisoner of war in Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel, an experience that led to friction with longtime collaborator Konrad Lorenz; the two reconciled several years later. After the war, Tinbergen moved to England, teaching at the University of Oxford and becoming a fellow at Merton College and later Wolfson College. Several of his graduate students became prominent biologists, including Richard Dawkins, Marian Dawkins, Desmond Morris, Iain Douglas-Hamilton, and Tony Sinclair. In 1951 Tinbergen published The Study of Instinct, an influential book on animal behaviour that summarized his ideas on innate behavioural reactions and the role of internal and external stimuli. He expanded on Lorenz's model of instinctive energy, proposing a hierarchical model in which motivational impulses build up in nervous centres and are released in a cascade. His experiments with foraging honey bees demonstrated how visual and chemical stimuli trigger successive steps in feeding behaviour. In the 1960s he collaborated with filmmaker Hugh Falkus on wildlife films, including Signals for Survival (1969), which won the Italia prize in that year and the American blue ribbon in 1971, and The Riddle of the Rook (1972).

Reader's Guide

Tinbergen's significance lies in his foundational contributions to ethology and behavioral ecology. His 1951 book The Study of Instinct provided a framework for understanding innate behaviour and the interplay of internal and external stimuli, influencing generations of researchers. He formalized four questions—causation (mechanism), development (ontogeny), function (adaptation), and evolution (phylogeny)—that remain central to the study of animal behaviour. His Nobel Prize, shared with Lorenz and von Frisch, recognized their work on genetically programmed behaviour patterns and their elicitation by key stimuli, which had implications for understanding psychiatric symptoms such as anguish, compulsive obsession, stereotypic behaviour and catatonic posture. Tinbergen's careful experimental methods, including work on supernormal stimuli—such as constructing plaster eggs that birds preferred over their own, and finding that male three-spined sticklebacks would attack a wooden fish model more vigorously if its underside was redder—advanced the field beyond mere observation. His legacy is also evident in the prominent biologists he trained, and his films helped popularize ethology. His Nobel lecture notably addressed F. M. Alexander, originator of the Alexander technique, reflecting his broader interests in human behaviour and posture.

Did You Know?

• Tinbergen and his brother Jan Tinbergen are the only siblings to each win a Nobel Prize—Jan won the first Bank of Sweden Prize in Economic Sciences in 1969.
• During World War II, Tinbergen was a prisoner of war in Kamp Sint-Michielsgestel, which caused friction with longtime collaborator Konrad Lorenz; they reconciled several years later.
• His 1932 doctoral thesis examined how female European beewolfs (Philanthus triangulum) use visual landmarks to find their nests.
• The wildlife film Signals for Survival (1969), made with filmmaker Hugh Falkus, won the Italia prize in 1969 and the American blue ribbon in 1971.
• In his Nobel lecture, Tinbergen devoted a large part to discussing F. M. Alexander, originator of the Alexander technique.