Abstract

The twentieth-century biologists Jakob von Uexküll and Adolf Portmann both discussed the role of stable cognitive and perceptual schemes in guiding and grounding the perception and behaviour of animals. Given the speed of current environmental change, it is rather common that inherited ancestral cognitive structures and recognition templates are not adequate for the environment an organism is born into. Hence perceptual structures that in stable environments have allowed for rapid recognition and behavioural responses might lead the animal astray and result in a novel ecological mismatch between the organism and the environment. This paper will demonstrate the role of such mismatches in recent species decline and animal welfare problems and discuss the relevance of Uexküll’s and Portmann’s theories for the corresponding research.