A new frontier in the biological sciences is challenging long-held conventions about how scientists study animal behaviour. Known as macrobehaviour, this emerging discipline explores behavioural patterns across vast geographical regions, broad taxonomic groups, and extensive timescales, marking a departure from the traditional focus on individual species or local populations.

Dr Sally Keith, from the Lancaster Environment Centre, has recently written a commentary on how macrobehaviour promotes a large-scale perspective on behavioural variation and change, something urgently needed in the face of accelerating anthropogenic pressures on the environment. This piece aims to specifically encourage participation of the behavioural ecology research community in macrobehaviour as conceived in Dr Keith’s earlier paper.

Behavioural flexibility may play a pivotal role in determining a species’ resilience to environmental stress. Studies by Dr Keith’s colleague, Dr Rucha Karkarey, on the peacock grouper, a predatory reef fish, revealed individuals capable of adjusting their foraging strategies are more likely to persist when habitats become degraded.

Beyond its ecological significance, macrobehaviour also holds promise for improving predictions of how species might shift their range to cope with changing climate – often used to guide conservation management. Traditional species distribution models rely on static correlations between species occurrences and environmental variables, with minimal focus on the role of behavioural dynamics. By incorporating behavioural traits such as reproductive timing or territoriality, researchers hope to generate more nuanced and ecologically realistic forecasts. However, identifying which behavioural traits to include and how best to represent them at scale remains a formidable challenge.

Exploring behavioural ecology using a macroecological approach can uncover general principles - “rules” that apply regardless of specific location or species – that underlie how animals make decisions and which behaviours they express in response to their environment. Such knowledge could help design effective conservation strategies applicable across large geographical scales, enabling more effective and efficient use of conservation resources.

Establishing macrobehaviour as a distinct scientific field will depend on close collaboration between ethologists, who study species-specific behaviours, and macroecologists, who analyse large datasets to detect overarching trends. This interdisciplinary approach will help ensure key behavioural characteristics are neither oversimplified nor stripped of their biological meaning when scaled up for global analysis, yet can provide far-reaching insight. For students and early-career researchers, it presents a unique opportunity to engage with a fast-moving area of inquiry, one which demands an interdisciplinary skill set, drawing on biology, ecology, psychology, and data science. To unlock the full potential of macrobehaviour research, scientists must gather vast amounts of standardised behavioural data across different species, locations, and time periods - a challenge that emerging tools like artificial intelligence (AI) can help overcome by automating data collection from video footage.

At its heart, macrobehaviour responds to the urgent need for scientific frameworks capable of addressing the complexity of life in rapidly changing environments. In doing so, it both reaffirms the enduring importance of ethology and sets the stage for a new era in the study of animal behaviour.

The full paper is available here