ABSTRACT
By tradition, comparative psychologists and animal behaviorists have defined the “field” as the environment, the life space, or the ecological niche in which animals evolved and may be found today. Field research presents the investigator an opportunity to study animals in their natural habitats, but it also presents obstacles and problems: uncomfortable weather, or the presence of lifethreatening micro-or macroorganisms. Special instruments may be needed depending on the animal’s habitat. Those required for observations in a rainforest canopy are different from those needed for work in the ocean, meadows, or the desert. It is possible that such difficulties played a role in turning comparative psychologists away from the field and toward the laboratory at the beginning of the 20th century.
