Mice, frogs, rabbits and many other animals continue to reproduce at a great rate. Imagine that one pair of rabbits had six young in each of three litters. If their offspring also had three litters with six young for just three years, there would be a lot of rabbits. You would think that when you visited a meadow that you would have to walk carefully to avoid all the rabbits and mice, but you know from personal experience this isn't the case. When you visit a meadow, you feel fortunate if you see even one or two rabbits.
Baby animals are cute.
We all like to see the young raccoons following their mother, or the baby birds in the nest being fed by their parents, but most of these young animals do not survive to become adults and have their own young. Most young animals either die of disease or are eaten by predators long before they become adults. If this was not true, there would be a huge and rapid increase in the population of the species in just a few years. The number of animals or plants is called a population. If the number of animals or plants remains about the same over a number of years, the population is said to be stable.