Do you have a pet or a farm? Do you work in a veterinary practice? Are you interested in how animals behave? There’s an ethology course for you! I combed the catalog to identify the best online animal behavior courses by collating syllabus, ratings, and reviews from Class Central and various course providers.

In this Best Courses Guide (BCG), find general ethology courses, some specific to cats, dogs, and chickens, and some courses aimed at biology students and teachers.

Click on the shortcuts for more details:

• Top Picks
• Why You Should Trust Us
• How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Top Picks

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BCG Stats

• 8 courses are free or free-to-audit
• 7 courses offer a certificate, one of these is free
• The most featured provider is Coursera with 4 courses.

Best General Animal Behavior Course (Wageningen University)

Introduction to Animal Behaviour is in Class Central’s Best Online Courses of All Time list.

The six modules cover:

• Key concepts in Animal Behavior Science: evolution, natural selection, anthropomorphism, and the scientific method
• How animals learn, adjust behavior, and use mental abilities for solving practical problems
• Various ways animals communicate, influenced by environment and social context
• Survival Strategies: how animals find and exploit food resources while avoiding predators
• The complexities of reproduction, from finding mates to rearing offspring
• Costs and benefits of social living, formation of complex social groups, and altruistic behaviors in animal communities
• Each module also includes an interview with a scientist.

This course is part of the Animal Behaviour in Science and Conservation Professional Certificate, which also includes Animal Behaviour in Conservation.

“A very good course in general! It is an introductory course so all the topics are covered in general with great explanations and examples…” – Alejandra Ariza.

Also Great Animal Behavior Course (University of Edinburgh)

Animal Behaviour and Welfare looks at our relationships with domesticated and wild animals in history and at the present time. You’ll learn:

• Why does animal welfare matter? History and assessment of animal welfare concepts
• Companion animal welfare, particularly dogs and cats
• Animal welfare in farms and zoos
• Conundrums and emotive animal welfare issues.

“The course was helpful in providing in-depth knowledge about the challenges of welfare and behavior in animals…Some contents may be upsetting though…” – Donato Rossella.

Best Animal Psychology Course With Free Certificate (The Open University)

Do non-human animals experience emotions the same way we do? Can they solve complex problems? How similar are their minds to human minds? Researching other species can provide useful insights into how human minds developed through evolution. Living psychology: animal minds will answer these and other questions. You’ll also learn:

• Evolution of brains and minds
• Emotions in different species and the neurobiology of emotions and mental health
• Animals using tools: elephants, crows, collaborative problem-solving
• How researchers test the Theory of Mind in animals
• Chimpanzees’ understanding of perception, knowledge, and false belief
• Studies in laboratories and natural settings.

“Such an intriguing and insightful course, delving into the minds and behaviors of animals, and the intrinsic evolutionary links we share with them…” – Celine Marks, OpenLearn learner.

Best Animal Behavior Study Guide (Study.com)

Aimed at students and teachers who may need a bit of extra help with ethology, the Animal Behavior Study Guide from Study.com will help you review topics for classroom discussions, prepare for exams, or supplement existing lesson plans. Learn about:

• Theory of evolution, ecosystems, biomes, animal reproduction, innate and learned animal behavior
• Genetics and the environment, operant conditioning, and how reaction norms explain behavior.

Best Course for Pet Owners (University of Edinburgh)

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Coursera offered some free certificates including one for The Truth About Cats and Dogs. I joined some Class Central colleagues taking the course so we could better understand our pets: read about our experience. While the certificate is no longer free, you can access the whole course including graded items without paying. You will learn to:

• Understand animal behaviors such as purring, tail wagging, yawning, and other body language communications
• Dispel common behavioral myths using science and learn how relationships with pets have changed over time
• Deal with problem behavior of pets and become a more educated, confident, and responsible pet owner.

“…perfect for pet owners who want to know more about their pets. For those who are planning to buy pets, I do recommend this course to help you get ready to be a good owner…” – Roy Wang.

Also Great Course About Dogs (Duke University)

Dog Emotion and Cognition has attracted a range of opinions. In each module, Dr. Hare suggests an optional reading from his book The Genius of Dogs, as well as free Dognition games on his website (but you need to pay for full website access). While some promotion of useful books and sites is common in online courses, this one continues to irritatingly push the book and site. The course made it into this BCG because it contains useful information about the historical and contemporary relationship between dogs and humans and explains numerous experiments. If you can ignore the hard sell, learn about:

• Evolutionary and cognitive theory, experimental methodology, dog psychology, how dogs compare to other species
• Animal cognition, problem solving, and animal behavior plus dog and human evolution and dog training
• The ecological approach to cognition via evolution, involving Tinbergen’s four levels of analysis
• Three hypotheses for how dogs understand human communicative intentions, particularly compared with apes
• Research studies with foxes, New Guinea Singing Dogs, and wolves. How early dog-wolves may actually be a product of natural selection rather than artificial selection, with a hypothesis called Survival of the Friendliest
• Causes of dog aggression via literature and studies and how humans in many cultures can live with dogs for mutual benefit.

“The class was interesting and it helped me to understand dogs better…” – Kelli Santistevan.

Best Chicken Behavior Course (University of Edinburgh)

Are you a hobby farmer, commercial chicken meat or egg producer? Or do you just have a few pet chickens to provide eggs for the family? Chicken Behaviour and Welfare will give you the information you need. You’ll learn:

• How to describe avian sensory perception, motivation, and behavior patterns of poultry
• How behavior develops in chickens from before hatching
• What are maintenance, comfort, social, and reproductive behaviors including courtship, brooding, and hatching eggs; abnormal behaviors
• Welfare standards and the Five Freedoms, how to make a welfare assessment
• Housing, transport and slaughter issues.

“Very interesting course and a lot more subject matter than I imagined there would be…” – MR, Coursera learner.

Another course about a specific animal is Equine Welfare and Management created by the University of California, Davis, but this course focuses less on horse behavior and more on welfare and caring properly for horses.

Best Ethology Course in Hindi/Hinglish (Mindsmine tutorials)

Ethology-Animal Behaviour and Neurophysiology is designed to prepare for MSc, BSc, CSIR-NET, and NEET exams. You will learn:

• Ethology (Animal Behaviour) as a branch of biology, perception of the environment
• Perception of the environment: visual, auditory, olfactory, chemical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, and gravitational
• Hormonal and neural control of behavior: ethoendocrinology, behavioral endocrinology, neuroethology, nervous system
• Ethogenetics: role of genes and environment in development of behavior
• Pheromones and other semichemicals for communication
• Bioluminescence, reflexes, kinesis and taxis (orientation)
• Innate, stereotyped and learnt behaviors
• Ecological aspects: habitat selection, territoriality, behavioral ecology, optimal foraging theory, food selection, aggression, dispersal, host-parasite relationships, communication
• Chronobiology, biological rhythms, biological clocks, epicycles and circadian rhythm
• Reproductive behavior: courtship, reproductive system, natural selection, and brood care
• Social behavior and migration.

“Super awesome mam..it will be great if you will continue with this topic.” – @vaishalikukreja9784, YouTube learner.

Best Short Animal Behavior Course in Bengali (OnnoRokom Pathshala)

Prepare for 2nd year HSC in Bangladesh with (HSC) Biology – Animal Behavior. Learn about:

• Animal behavior and nature
• Heredity and innate behavior: taxis, reflex, instinct, simple and complex
• Acquired behavior: learning
• Altruism.

“AWESOME video!” – @surayaanjum4444, YouTube learner.

Why You Should Trust Us

Class Central, a Tripadvisor for online education, has helped 80 million learners find their next course. We’ve been combing through online education for more than a decade to aggregate a catalog of 250,000 online courses and 250,000 reviews written by our users. And we’re online learners ourselves: combined, the Class Central team has completed over 400 online courses, including online degrees.

I’ve personally completed more than 200 online courses in a variety of topics including animal behavior.

How We Made Our Picks and Tested Them

Trying to find “the best” can be daunting, even for those of us who live and breathe online courses. Here’s how I approached this task.

First, I combed through Class Central’s Catalog and the internet to find a variety of free and paid open courses, some with certificates. You don’t need to enroll in a university to learn about animal behavior.

I extracted information from course syllabi and reviews, and compiled their ratings, leveraging the Class Central database with its thousands of course ratings and reviews written by our users as well as available course provider ratings. I watched some course videos to sample courses I hadn’t already taken.

Then, I defined the scope for these recommendations. An animal behavior course can cover various topics, so I chose top courses from a range of sub-fields.

Ultimately, I used a combination of data and my own judgment to make these picks. I’m confident these recommendations will be a reliable way to learn about animal behavior.