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ABSTRACT Considerable progress has been made in understanding the physiological basis for variation in the life‐history patterns of animals, particularly with regard to the roles of oxidative stress and hormonal regulation. However, an underappreciated and understudied area that could play a role in mediating inter‐ and intraspecific variation of life history is endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress, and the resulting unfolded protein response (UPR^ER). ER stress response and the UPR^ERmaintain proteostasis in cells by reducing the intracellular load of secretory proteins and enhancing protein folding capacity or initiating apoptosis in cells that cannot recover. Proper modulation of the ER stress response and execution of the UPR^ERallow animals to respond to intracellular and extracellular stressors and adapt to constantly changing environments. ER stress responses are heritable and there is considerable individual variation in UPR^ERphenotype in animals, suggesting that ER stress and UPR^ERphenotype can be subjected to natural selection. The variation in UPR^ERphenotype presumably reflects the way animals respond to ER stress and environmental challenges. Most of what we know about ER stress and the UPR^ERin animals has either come from biomedical studies using cell culture or from experiments involving conventional laboratory or agriculturally important models that exhibit limited genetic diversity. Furthermore, these studies involve the assessment of experimentally induced qualitative changes in gene expression as opposed to the quantitative variations that occur in naturally existing populations. Almost all of these studies were conducted in controlled settings that are often quite different from the conditions animals experience in nature. Herein, we review studies that investigated ER stress and the UPR^ERin relation to key life‐history traits including growth and development, reproduction, bioenergetics and physical performance, and ageing and senescence. We then ask if these studies can inform us about the role of ER stress and the UPR^ERin mediating the aforementioned life‐history traits in free‐living animals. We propose that there is a need to conduct experiments pertaining to ER stress and the UPR^ERin ecologically relevant settings, to characterize variation in ER stress and the UPR^ERin free‐living animals, and to relate the observed variation to key life‐history traits. We urge others to integrate multiple physiological systems and investigate how interactions between ER stress and oxidative stress shape life‐history trade‐offs in free‐living animals.