ABSTRACT
This chapter highlights locomotion, the most costly activity, dealing with its physiology, allometric scaling, adaptive mechanisms, and contribution to the daily energy budget. Using modern analytical equipment and well-trained experimental animals, the incremental costs of most activities can be measured with a high degree of accuracy. The incremental cost of standing over lying has been measured using respiration chambers, gas collection masks, and heart-rate telemetry. It is now well established that the relative cost of locomotion for large animals is less than that for small animals. Most of the energy of locomotion is spent in tensioning tendons that serve to store energy, and in doing other internal work, and comparatively little is used in accelerating and decelerating the limbs. The energy cost of locomotion has been determined for a number of species by measuring their oxygen consumption during exercise on a treadmill or various ground surfaces.
