Like snakes, bees, lizards, crocs. Everything that doesn’t have a parent raise them. How do they “know” how to survive?
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Aside from genetically pre-programed instincts, animals also learn from each other even if they aren’t specifically raised by a parent by watching other animals.
Also, the animals that screw up get killed in pretty short order, so you’re only seeing the successful ones. Biologists divide this up into r-Strategists and K-Strategists.
The r-strategists have a whole bunch of offspring and don’t put a lot of effort into teaching or raising them. Many die young, but enough are smart or lucky enough to survive and continue the species. Many insects & some fish fall into this category for instance.
K-strategists on the other hand have a smaller number of offspring but devote much more energy to keeping them alive. This could mean putting energy into protecting and teaching their young, but it also means devoting more energy into larger brains, longer gestation & larger sizes at birth, etc.
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