As an international scientist, he worked alongside other neuroethologists and researchers to further explain animal behavior in a comprehensive manner and "through the application of a strict analytical and quantitative method".

[2] The advancements within neuroethology today are still largely due to his influences, as his life was dedicated to researching that which could be applicable to "all complex nervous systems" and he "[investigated] the general principles of nature".

[1] Much of his work eventually led to the testing and production of evidence contrary to Lorenz's theory of the psychohydraulic model of motivation (specifically aggression) using male Chiclidae.

His status as neuroethologist was further established when he moved to the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, in 1972 as a post-doctoral investigator in Theodore Holmes Bullock's laboratory.

[3] His work at UCSD led him to publish widely about the neural bases of the jamming avoidance response, the first vertebrate example of an entire behavioral pattern that could be explained from sensory input to motor output.

His openness with his graduate students was notable, as he encouraged them not only to use and learn new techniques and other interests in different fields, but was also willing to allow them independently started projects and papers published without being named as a co-author.