“…Respirometry studies indicate that a mother's daily energy consumption increases 85–110% over nonlactating periods (Thometz, Kendall, Richter, & Williams, ; Thometz, Tinker, Staedler, Mayer, & Williams, ). Despite increasing their foraging effort to as much as 60% of each 24‐h period (Esslinger et al., ; Thometz, Staedler, et al., ), females in resource‐limited environments are often emaciated by the end of lactation. The extreme energetic demands elicited by lactation and pup‐rearing, in addition to exogenous stressors such as resource limitation (Tinker, Doak, & Estes, ; Tinker et al., ), can increase risk of metabolic collapse and mortality, a phenomenon known as “End‐Lactation Syndrome” (ELS) (Chinn et al., ).…”