Question

. Frogs and insects lay hundreds of eggs and have hundreds of offspring. If that is the case, why are we not overrun with frogs and insects? How does nature select which offspring will survive?

Answer 1

Frogs and insects are in the bottom of food chain, so they are vulnerable to predators of natural enviornment who are above them, so they have constant danger of consumers who are above them,as a result their survival is restricted.Life span of frogs and insects as compared to humans are less, and moreover their mortality rates are high, could be one of the reasons why we are not overrun with frogs and insects.

Frogs reproduce by external fertilization, which usually happens in water, thus there is possiblity that the male gamets never get to meet the eggs for fertilization to occur, thats why they produce so many eggs.

Frogs and insects do not care or protect their offsprings as compared to other animals, so most of the young ones end up as food, as opposed to an animal like whale who protect, feed and teach their young ones who then survive at much higher rate.

To prevent overpopulation nature also plays an important part in maintaining balance in the form of water currents, heavy down pours,floods etc, natural calamity could be one of the reason why they are not overpopulated