Description

The umwelt is a concept that was developed by the German biologist, Jakob Von Uexk ll (von Uexk ll, 1934/2010). The key aspect of this concept is that only a limited number of environmental stimuli available to an animal are used, so only certain aspects of an organism's environment are meaningful. Due to differences in sensory systems, certain features of the environment might hold salience, or value, only to organisms that can sense and perceive the existence of these features or stimuli. Therefore, the umwelten of diverse species, equipped with various sensory organs, cannot be the same - implying that the internal experience of the external environment would also differ. So, in that vein, a human should not assume that, for example, a bat is having the same subjective experience that they have, despite being in the same location at the same time. Recognizing that differences in umwelten are possible is a powerful initial framework from which to observe, analyze, and attempt to answer questions about animal behaviour.