Appetite Interrupted
The Role of Predators in Shaping the Behavioral Ecology and Physiology of Satiety
- 1st Edition - November 1, 2025
- Author: James A. Carr
- Language: English
- Paperback ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 2 9 2 1 8 - 7
- eBook ISBN:9 7 8 - 0 - 4 4 3 - 2 9 2 1 9 - 4
Appetite Interrupted: The Role of Predators in Shaping the Behavioral Ecology and Physiology of Satiety explores how mechanisms suppress feeding in vertebrates within both physio… Read more
Appetite Interrupted: The Role of Predators in Shaping the Behavioral Ecology and Physiology of Satiety explores how mechanisms suppress feeding in vertebrates within both physiological and ecological contexts. Highlighting predation's role as a selective pressure, the book identifies novel neuroendocrine pathways through future research. Written by an expert, it systematically examines the behavioral ecology, evolutionary pressures, physiological processes, and stressors affecting foraging and feeding behaviors in vertebrates. The book covers why animals stop eating, selective pressures driving the evolution of hunger suppression mechanisms, and physiological controls inhibiting feeding, including stress, anxiety, and fear.
It concludes with humans' pathways and obesity evolution, offering practical applications for human nutrition.
It concludes with humans' pathways and obesity evolution, offering practical applications for human nutrition.
- Showcases the latest developments in the ecology of foraging and predator avoidance tradeoffs
- Summarizes the latest developments in the behavioral and physiological mechanisms inhibiting eating and their evolution
- Explores the latest developments in the support for predator release as a theory for the evolution of obesity in humans
- Presents case studies to aid students in learning key concepts in the ecology and physiology of feeding
Academic researchers and industry scientists in the fields of endocrinology, neuroscience, physiology, ecology, evolutionary biology, as well as healthcare professionals in nutritional science, cardiology, and general practice
1. INTRODUCTION
1.1 Eating is fun. So what makes us stop?
1.2 Functional redundancy: many pathways for suppressing food intake
1.3 The pike in the carp pond: Two set points for body mass regulation
1.4 The importance of ecology and evolution in understanding the regulation of feeding
1.5 The importance of comparative biology in understanding where satiety mechanisms came from
1.6 The structure of the book
2. THE ECOLOGY OF EATING
2.1 Optimal foraging
2.1.1 Assumptions of optimal foraging theory
2.1.2 Diet, patch choice, patch exploitation, and movement
2.1.3 Risk vs danger: Optimal foraging in a dangerous environment
2.1.4 Plasticity in foraging decisions as a result of age, reproductive status, seasons, sex and geographical distribution
2.1.5 Can we accurately study the fitness outcomes of foraging decisions in animals?
2.2 Nutritional ecology
2.3 The neuroscience underlying foraging decisions
2.3.1 Stay or switch decisions 2.3.2 Accept or reject decisions
2.4 Case studies: 2.4.1 Red knot migration
2.4.2 Prey size: clams and crows
2.5 Chapter Summary
3. IS PREDATION THE COST FOR BEING FAT?
3.1 The foraging/predator avoidance tradeoff explained
3.2 Predator effects on feeding behavior
3.3 Predator effects on fat deposition
3.4 Predator effects on energy utilization
3.5 Predation as an evolutionary selection pressure
3.6 Case studies:
3.6.1 Fatness and escape from predators in birds and burrowing mammals
3.6.2 Can birds sing away their supper to remain slim?
3.7 Chapter summary
4. SLOW MECHANISMS FOR INHIBITING EATING: APPETITE, SATIETY AND THEIR CONTROL
4.1 What motivates animals to eat?
4.1.1 The drive to eat features interplay between hunger and appetite. What are the differences?
4.1.2 Food seeking and brain reward systems
4.2 Mechanisms within the Central Nervous System that inhibit eating
4.2.1 What the brainstem tells the rest of your brain about being full
4.2.2 Hypothalamic control of appetite and eating
4.2.2.1 The arcuate nucleus and its strategic location
4.2.2.2 Melanocortin and AgRP peptides
4.2.2.3 Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)
4.2.2.4 Neuropeptide Y (NPY) • 4.2.2.5 Corticotropin-releasing factor
4.3 Mechanisms outside the Central Nervous System that inhibit eating
4.3.1 Adipokines 4.3.2 Gut hormones
4.3.3 Pancreatic hormones
4.3.4 Mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors
4.4. An ecological context for slow mechanisms that inhibit eating.
4.5. The evolution of mechanisms inhibiting eating (possibly a separate chapter)
4.6. Case studies: The importance of satiety in a dangerous world
4.7. Chapter summary
5. RAPID MECHANISMS FOR INHIBITING EATING: WORMS, ANTIWORMS, AND LASERS, OH MY
5.1 The predation risk allocation hypothesis: rapid antipredator decisions
5.2 Neuroethology and innate detection of predator features
5.2.1 Visual feature cues
5.2.2 Olfactory feature cues
5.3 The optic tectum and superior colliculus: The brain’s decision center for rapid feed or flee responses
5.4 Hypothalamic AgRP neurons and predator avoidance
5.5 Rapid inhibition of feeding by the nucleus accumbens
5.6 Parabrachial-to-parasubthalamic nucleus pathway controlling fear-induced feeding suppression
5.7 An ecological context for fast mechanisms that inhibit eating
5.8 Case studies: Rapid foraging/predator avoidance decisions
5.9 Chapter summary
6. HOW STRESS, ANXIETY AND FEAR AFFECT EATING
6.1 How is stress different than anxiety or fear?
6.2 The endocrine stress axis and its rhythmic activity
6.3 Stress axis hormones and eating
6.4 CRF, glucocorticoids and the motivation to eat
6.5 Orexins, stress and eating
6.6 Case studies: The ecology of fear? HPA axis response to predators in wildlife
6.7 Chapter summary
7. PREDATORS AND THE EVOLUTION OF OBESITY IN HUMANS
7.1 When humans were hunted
7.2 Innate recognition of predators in humans: Why do some of us hate snakes so much?
7.3 Thrifty or drifty: the potential role of predator release in human obesity
7.4 Case Studies: Experimental support for the predator release hypothesis
7.4.1 Meet the volcano mouse!
7.4.2 Predator release effects in marsupials.
7.4.3 Isolation on islands leads to loss of antipredator behavior and more time foraging
7.4.4 The long-term effects of lower predation risk on foraging behavior in Trinidadian guppies
7.5 Chapter summary
1.1 Eating is fun. So what makes us stop?
1.2 Functional redundancy: many pathways for suppressing food intake
1.3 The pike in the carp pond: Two set points for body mass regulation
1.4 The importance of ecology and evolution in understanding the regulation of feeding
1.5 The importance of comparative biology in understanding where satiety mechanisms came from
1.6 The structure of the book
2. THE ECOLOGY OF EATING
2.1 Optimal foraging
2.1.1 Assumptions of optimal foraging theory
2.1.2 Diet, patch choice, patch exploitation, and movement
2.1.3 Risk vs danger: Optimal foraging in a dangerous environment
2.1.4 Plasticity in foraging decisions as a result of age, reproductive status, seasons, sex and geographical distribution
2.1.5 Can we accurately study the fitness outcomes of foraging decisions in animals?
2.2 Nutritional ecology
2.3 The neuroscience underlying foraging decisions
2.3.1 Stay or switch decisions 2.3.2 Accept or reject decisions
2.4 Case studies: 2.4.1 Red knot migration
2.4.2 Prey size: clams and crows
2.5 Chapter Summary
3. IS PREDATION THE COST FOR BEING FAT?
3.1 The foraging/predator avoidance tradeoff explained
3.2 Predator effects on feeding behavior
3.3 Predator effects on fat deposition
3.4 Predator effects on energy utilization
3.5 Predation as an evolutionary selection pressure
3.6 Case studies:
3.6.1 Fatness and escape from predators in birds and burrowing mammals
3.6.2 Can birds sing away their supper to remain slim?
3.7 Chapter summary
4. SLOW MECHANISMS FOR INHIBITING EATING: APPETITE, SATIETY AND THEIR CONTROL
4.1 What motivates animals to eat?
4.1.1 The drive to eat features interplay between hunger and appetite. What are the differences?
4.1.2 Food seeking and brain reward systems
4.2 Mechanisms within the Central Nervous System that inhibit eating
4.2.1 What the brainstem tells the rest of your brain about being full
4.2.2 Hypothalamic control of appetite and eating
4.2.2.1 The arcuate nucleus and its strategic location
4.2.2.2 Melanocortin and AgRP peptides
4.2.2.3 Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART)
4.2.2.4 Neuropeptide Y (NPY) • 4.2.2.5 Corticotropin-releasing factor
4.3 Mechanisms outside the Central Nervous System that inhibit eating
4.3.1 Adipokines 4.3.2 Gut hormones
4.3.3 Pancreatic hormones
4.3.4 Mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors
4.4. An ecological context for slow mechanisms that inhibit eating.
4.5. The evolution of mechanisms inhibiting eating (possibly a separate chapter)
4.6. Case studies: The importance of satiety in a dangerous world
4.7. Chapter summary
5. RAPID MECHANISMS FOR INHIBITING EATING: WORMS, ANTIWORMS, AND LASERS, OH MY
5.1 The predation risk allocation hypothesis: rapid antipredator decisions
5.2 Neuroethology and innate detection of predator features
5.2.1 Visual feature cues
5.2.2 Olfactory feature cues
5.3 The optic tectum and superior colliculus: The brain’s decision center for rapid feed or flee responses
5.4 Hypothalamic AgRP neurons and predator avoidance
5.5 Rapid inhibition of feeding by the nucleus accumbens
5.6 Parabrachial-to-parasubthalamic nucleus pathway controlling fear-induced feeding suppression
5.7 An ecological context for fast mechanisms that inhibit eating
5.8 Case studies: Rapid foraging/predator avoidance decisions
5.9 Chapter summary
6. HOW STRESS, ANXIETY AND FEAR AFFECT EATING
6.1 How is stress different than anxiety or fear?
6.2 The endocrine stress axis and its rhythmic activity
6.3 Stress axis hormones and eating
6.4 CRF, glucocorticoids and the motivation to eat
6.5 Orexins, stress and eating
6.6 Case studies: The ecology of fear? HPA axis response to predators in wildlife
6.7 Chapter summary
7. PREDATORS AND THE EVOLUTION OF OBESITY IN HUMANS
7.1 When humans were hunted
7.2 Innate recognition of predators in humans: Why do some of us hate snakes so much?
7.3 Thrifty or drifty: the potential role of predator release in human obesity
7.4 Case Studies: Experimental support for the predator release hypothesis
7.4.1 Meet the volcano mouse!
7.4.2 Predator release effects in marsupials.
7.4.3 Isolation on islands leads to loss of antipredator behavior and more time foraging
7.4.4 The long-term effects of lower predation risk on foraging behavior in Trinidadian guppies
7.5 Chapter summary
- Edition: 1
- Published: November 1, 2025
- Language: English
JC
James A. Carr
Dr. James Carr is Professor at Texas Tech University. He obtained his BSc at Rutgers University and his PhD at the University of Colorado. He studies neuroendocrinology and the environmental endocrinology of amphibians and fishes, and he has taught courses in physiology, endocrinology, histology, and neurobiology. His endocrine research focuses on the neuroendocrinology of stress, the role of visual system neuropeptides in behavioral tradeoffs, and lab and field studies into the role of EDCs that adversely influence thyroid and reproductive physiology.
Affiliations and expertise
Texas Tech University, TX, USA