The Starvation-Predation Trade-Off Predicts Trends in Body Size, Muscularity, and Adiposity between and within Taxa
Abstract
The storage of lipids to buffer energy shortage may incur such costs as increased vulnerability to predation, and animals may be more muscular in order to reduce such costs. If muscle and lipid mass interact to determine survival, then both the muscularity and the adiposity of animals will be affected by factors such as predator density and food availability. Here we explore how adiposity and muscularity may depend on such factors. We confirm the expectation that adiposity should decrease with the risk of predation and increase with the frequency of interruptions to the food supply. More surprisingly, the predicted relationships between skeletal size, muscularity, and adiposity qualitatively depended on various factors: for example, adiposity should increase with foraging costs only for small animals and should decrease with total body mass if competition for food is intense. Furthermore, if the locomotive costs of carrying lipids are low, then adiposity should increase with body mass, whereas if such costs are high, then adiposity should decrease with body mass. These predictions are supported by observations of variation between and within species. Our approach demonstrates that broad patterns of body composition can be understood in terms of the fundamental ecological trade-off between starvation and predation.
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The lower set point of body fatness protects against death by starvation, whereas the upper set point limits body fatness and lowers the risk of death by predation.
“The lower set point of body fatness—for regulating food intake—protects against death by starvation, whereas the upper set point limits body fatness, which lowers the risk of death by predation (Gosler et al. 2002, Higginson et al. 2012).”
From Motion sickness: more than nausea and vomiting (2014) · cites this paper as Higginson et al. 2012
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Jarrett, C., Helm, B., Rime, Y., Barshep, Y., Bitrus, K. Z., Ishong, J. A., & Nwaogu, C. J. (2025) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.2025.1988
Mahoney, A., Sugarman, S., Hough, K., Szabó, A., & Avena, N. (2026) · Frontiers in Public Health · doi:10.3389/fpubh.2026.1890961
- Authors
- Higginson, A. D., McNamara, J. M., & Houston, A. I.
- Affiliations
- University of Bristol (GB)
- Venue
- The American Naturalist
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 2012-03
- Volume
- 179
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 338-350
- ISSN
- 0003-0147 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5323
- OpenAlex
- W2034904356
- Cited by
- 52
- References
- 66
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 1 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 6 · 2013: 5 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 4.25
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- The American Naturalist (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
- Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Environmental Science › Ecology › Physiological and biochemical adaptations
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Paleontology › Evolution and Paleontology Studies
- Keywords
- adiposity, muscularity, body size, fat deposition, energy reserves, predation risk, food availability, foraging costs, body composition, interspecific variation, intraspecific variation, body mass
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Competitive Behavior, Models, Biological, Nutritional Requirements, Population Density, Species Specificity, Muscle, Skeletal, Food Chain, Body Size, Adiposity
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