Meeting Abstract
First, I will raise and discuss the proposition that, similarly to Westernised human populations, some animals can only ‘keep fit’ by undertaking voluntary exercise, and that keeping fit may be vital for key behaviours such as escaping predators and out-competing conspecifics. In turn, the time and energy costs of such voluntary exercise could have important ecological implications. Yet at least some animals appear to be able to ‘get fit’ without increasing activity levels; are such adaptations associated with life history and/or ecology? … But presumably staying in shape is only worthwhile for an animal if it has a good shape to start with; second, I present empirical evidence arising from my recent work on how inter-individual variability in morphology can affect movement economy in challenging habitats. Specifically, parkour athletes repeatedly traversed a course designed to elicit movement behaviours emulating those of arboreal primates, and we observed that in general their energy economies of locomotion improved as they became familiarised with that course. However, those athletes with relatively long arms and relatively short legs were the better able to find energy savings over repeated attempts at the course. I finish by considering why such a morphology might be advantageous in this particular scenario and how this relates to our understanding of arboreal ape evolution.
