If alligators lay an average of 40 eggs a mating season, how come we don’t have an alligator epidemic? Rabbits only have 12 offspring by comparison!!

Question

Seriously. Some gators can lay NINETY EGGS! How is this not a problem? How does nature handle this? Why aren’t we up to our knees in big scaly bellowing carnivores?

In: 12

Answer 1

For a growing population of alligators, of the 38 eggs, about 24 survive to hatching. Of the survivors, about 10 make it to 1 year, and 5 to adulthood. The survival rate is atrocious because they’re born as tiny lizards.

Source: https://myfwc.com/wildlifehabitats/wildlife/alligator/facts/