Why do Canada geese have so many children?

Lots of children means more chances at least some will make it to adulthood. Quantity vs Quality.

Instead of putting all your eggs in a basket, why not 15 baskets?

so they can spread their asshole behavior as wide as possible

Geese steal babies from other geese

>>2396359
I think the question is rather why does this strategy work well for this animal as opposed to others. Not all species produce quantity over quality.

>>2396364

Because fucking leaf geese are pests, not birds, and pests always breed in huge numbers.

File: MAC05_01_GOOSE_POST01[1].jpg (450KB, 822x462px) Image search: [Google]

450KB, 822x462px

>>2396364
Quantity and quality are mutually exclusive in the natural world, as far as we've observed. Life changes only to eventually become only what works to ensure the continuation of the species.

They originate from up as far as the arctic and are expected to be near fully functional just after hatching, except for their flight. In addition to this, they migrate every season and can be forced to deal with different environments. It has also been measured that they experience abnormally high amounts of stress during and after migration.

They've evolved to have so many children probably because it meant for a higher chance of the family surviving and propagating throughout all of those intense conditions.

Of course, when they come into contact with human civilization and enjoy such luxuries as predator-free parks and a shitload of food everywhere, this expansive reproduction pattern no longer encounters the natural inhibitors it once did.

The only answer is an aggressive no-feeding public campaign and fewer regulations on local and urban hunting.

>>2396387
Looking at this picture I wonder when a bird shits out a bunch of eggs if it knows they will hatch into smaller birds or if it just sits on and protects them without really even understanding why.

>>2396364
Incubating babies takes a toll on nutrition , health and time. Look at elephants. They're pregnant for like, what, a year? Close to it or longer. Then they don't breed for a few years so they can care for their offspring to help make sure it grows old enough where it won't be lion food.

Geese are also prey animals. Prey animals tend to breed and grow faster or have multiple young than carnivores because they have too.

>>2396357
Because some of the adults are not included in the picture because it has an alright composition as it is

>>2396357
Who the FUCK is going to stop them, OP?

Gorillas? Giraffes? Rhinoceroses? Humans?

>>2396431
Natural instinct is just mind blowing to think about as a human being.