The Eclectic Father of Cognitive Ethology

A new book offers a detailed look at Donald Griffin's bold scientific work.

Reviewed by Gary Drevitch

I have long been an avid fan of the one of the most distinguished and courageous scientists of recent times, Donald (Don) R. Griffin. He and I spent many hours talking about the scientific study of animal minds, and there is no doubt whatsoever that he is the "Father of Cognitive Ethology." Thus, I was thrilled when Carolyn Ristau published an in-depth three-volume work about the life of this most amazing man, a summary of which can be found in an essay titled "Précis of: 'Birds, Bats and Minds: Tales of a Revolutionary Scientist, Donald R. Griffin'" in the journal Animal Sentience. (All three volumes can be downloaded for free here.)

In 1992, Dale Jamieson and I summarized Don's seminal work in an essay called "On Aims and Methods of Cognitive Ethology" in which we wove his work into the general field of ethology and the rise of cognitive ethology.¹ Griffin also challenged skeptics who offered glib accounts of animal minds to bear the burden of proof, and to offer testable hypotheses rather than time-worn dogma. He awakened us about animal cognition and the complex nature of animal minds.

Here's what Carolyn had to say about her landmark book.

Marc Bekoff: Why did you write Birds, Bats and Minds?

Carolyn Ristau: Many of us recognize that Donald R. Griffin was one of the major scientists and scientific intellectuals of the 20th century. More should. Not only an exemplary scientist, Don Griffin was an impressive human being: humble, considerate, open to enumerable ideas, supportive of so many other scientists’ ideas and work, and, as well, witty and inordinately curious! As a scientist he did not merely attempt to better understand animal behavior, he discovered abilities that we did not even imagine existed!

When only an undergraduate, he and his Harvard buddy, Robert Galambos, discovered that some bats have sonar. The bats send out ultra-high frequency sounds that we humans can’t hear; they listen to the echoes that bounce back from objects around them. Amazingly, the bats thereby can make their way in pitch dark night through the rocky crevices in the caves where they often live. (Almost) no one believed the young men. A major biologist simply shook Galambos after he lectured, angrily stating, “You can ‘t be serious!” Later, to Griffin’s own astonishment, he realized that not only could the bats avoid obstacles, they were using the sounds to locate and attack and eat flying insects.

Birds, too, fascinated Griffin. Sometimes, birds get displaced by storms or when fleeing a predator, but they find their way home. Some birds migrate each year thousands of miles to a better environment with more food. They do so even the first year after birth. How do the birds accomplish this? Griffin diligently studied this ability. He dared suggest that birds might be using the sun, moon or stars to help guide them, or even learn to follow coastlines or get clues from sounds of crashing waves. Again, hostility and disbelief!

And then, in 1976, he dared write a small book, The Question of Animal Awareness.^2,3 He noted that we humans share, through evolution, many similarities with other animals. We have similar physiological structures (eyes, stomachs, hearts etc.), bio-chemical reactions, nervous systems and so forth. Isn’t it likely that animals, too, have mental abilities; could they learn and think and have emotions? Shouldn’t scientists be studying this?

He had just initiated the new field of cognitive ethology.

By this point, Don was recognized around the world for his bat studies. He had been chair of the Harvard Biology Department and head of a new Institute at The Rockefeller University (the Rock). But still scientists whispered, “He’s setting science back decades. Is this early senility?” By now, we realize that Don Griffin was right in almost all his suggestions in all his fields of study.

MB: How does your book relate to your background and general areas of interest?

CR: I had the privilege of being a member of Don Griffin’s lab at “The Rock” during the time he was writing The Question of Animal Awareness. I was happily part of many discussions with him and others fascinated by animal minds and communication. My own earlier work had explored the similar sounds and messages used by both infant humans and animals. I was also intrigued by how some songbirds learn their songs; it is not an automatic sort of thing. We learn language. Might some monkeys be able to do this too? I also dug diligently into the various experiments that attempted to teach apes a human language.

Then came the plovers. They perform a “broken wing display” when a predator comes near their nest or young. Just some instinctive behavior, scientists used to say. But was it so automatic? Could it be used strategically to best lure the intruder away, I wondered? My experiments say, “Yes.”

So, this study of the life and work of Don Griffin and his associates was extremely close to my own interests.

MB: Who do you hope to reach with your interesting and important book?

CR: My immediate reaction is everyone! Especially anyone, including academics, interested in animals’ doings and their welfare, in communication, and philosophers of science or mind. Techy persons, for Griffin and his colleagues were techy sorts creating many scientific gadgets. Anyone interested in how science is actually conducted, particularly fieldwork and its trials and tribulations and joys!

It’s a big book, three volumes, but you can easily pick and choose what fascinates you most.

MB: What are some of the major topics you consider?

CR: I try to update the science conducted after Griffin, but happily I’ve failed in that attempt. I say “happily,” because so many advances are underway that by the next day, there is something new to report or wonder about.

I also try to relate the revolutionary work Griffin was conducting, particularly that about animal minds, to the revolutions occurring in society and other sciences in the 1960s and 70s.

MB: Are you hopeful that as people learn more about Don's work they will come to appreciate the importance of what he did and the general field of cognitive ethology?

CR: Absolutely! His work literally inspired others to continue it. Our concerns empathetically and legally with animals’ welfare depends on the foundations provided by cognitive ethology and related studies. How do we save environments for them? If some become our food, how to maintain them? How do we use their help in our work or science? How do we understand and treat them as our pets? How do we appreciate animals as other beings worthy of respect?