Abstract
We analyze an age‐, size‐ and sex‐structured model to investigate how the interplay between individual‐level energy budget dynamics and the feedback of population grazing on resources shapes the individual life history and the dynamics of ungulate populations, living in a predator‐free, seasonal resource environment. We formulate a dynamic energy budget model for individual energetics, which accounts for energy requirements for maintenance and growth, and possibly pregnancy and lactation. Growth in structural mass is assumed prescribed. Dynamics of energy reserves are the resultant of energy acquisition through grazing and suckling of milk and the aforementioned energy‐consuming processes. The dynamic energy budget model is used as the core for an individual‐based population model, which captures general features of ungulate life history and population dynamics, although it is parameterized for a particular system. Model predictions reveal a characteristic dynamic pattern, in which years with low death tolls (