16 Facts About Oskar Heinroth

Oskar Heinroth was a German biologist who was one of the first to apply the methods of comparative morphology to animal behavior, and was thus one of the founders of ethology.

Oskar Heinroth worked, largely isolated from most other scientists of the period, at the Berlin Aquarium where he took care of fishes, reptiles and birds, especially waterfowl before he was murdered by Soviet occupying police agents shortly after WW2.

Oskar Heinroth studied medicine and graduated in 1895, but later studied zoology at Berlin while working at the Zoological Garden and at the Natural History Museum.

In 1904, Heinroth became an assistant at the Berlin Zoological Garden.

Oskar Heinroth began his studies of duck and goose behavior while working as a scientific assistant from 1898 to 1913.

Oskar Heinroth married Magdalena nee Wiebe who was interested in animals and was a skilled taxidermist and aviculturist.

Oskar Heinroth died under Soviet interrogation in Berlin on 31 May 1945.

Oskar Heinroth was largely self taught and was not affiliated to any academic institution but his second wife Katharina had received a doctorate in 1925 under Otto Koehler and together they published numerous pioneering works on animal behaviour.

Oskar Heinroth made extensive studies of behavior in the Anatidae and made bold hypotheses that many of their instinctive behavior patterns and morphological features correlated with their life histories.

Oskar Heinroth suggested for instance that the conspicuous wing patterns of ducks might serve to guide flocks in flight.

Oskar Heinroth noted behaviours of ducks and those of hybrids and suggested that their behavioural cues could be used to deduce taxonomic relationships.

Oskar Heinroth had noted that chickens were alarmed by long-tailed and short-necked birds suggesting that these were the key characteristics of birds of prey.

Oskar Heinroth rediscovered the phenomenon of imprinting, reported in the 19th century by Douglas Spalding but not followed up at the time.

Oskar Heinroth's results were popularized by Konrad Lorenz, his pupil.

Oskar Heinroth introduced the word "ethologie", as it is currently understood, in his 1910 Beitrage zur Biologie, namentlich Ethologie und Psychologie der Anatiden.

Lorenz credited Oskar Heinroth with creating an important method for understanding instincts in birds.