The founders of modern ethology are generally recognized as the Dutch biologist Nikolaas Tinbergen and the Austrian biologists Konrad Lorenz and Karl von Frisch. Their pioneering work in the 1930s established ethology as a distinct scientific discipline focused on the study of animal behavior, particularly in natural settings. These three scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973 for their contributions to the field

. Ethology as a scientific study has roots going back to earlier naturalists such as Charles Darwin, who influenced the field with his work on the expression of emotions in animals in the 19th century. Other early contributors included American and German ornithologists like Charles O. Whitman and Oskar Heinroth, who studied instinctive behaviors. However, the formal establishment of ethology as a modern discipline occurred in the 1930s with the work of Tinbergen, Lorenz, and von Frisch

. In summary:

• Founders: Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch
• When: Ethology began as a modern discipline in the 1930s
• Recognition: Nobel Prize awarded to the three founders in 1973 for their work in ethology