The course incorporates the fields of animal physiology, biochemistry, ecology and behavior to provide a comprehensive framework for energy acquisition, processing, and use in animals. The course content integrates cellular and molecular mechanisms of digestion and absorption, with tissue-specific and whole-animal metabolism, to the environmental influences on food resource availability and the diverse adaptations of animals to specific dietary and energetic constraints. The course primarily focuses on vertebrate animals. Prerequisites: BIOL 123N or BIOL 138N; and BIOL 124N or BIOL 139N. Pre- or corequisite: BIOL 305.