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'''Spock:''' [[Ludicrous Precision|One million, seven hundred seventy-one thousand, five hundred sixty-one]]. That's assuming one tribble, multiplying with an average litter of ten, producing a new generation every twelve hours over a period of three days--
'''Kirk:''' And that's assuming that they got here three days ago--
'''Spock:''' ''Also'' allowing for the amount of grain consumed and the volume of the storage compartment--
|''[[Star Trek: The
A creature which reproduces at an alarmingly fast rate. Often, there will be only one to start with, suggesting that it can reproduce asexually. If not asexual, the creature may employ [[Face Full of Alien Wingwong]] to extend its list of potential mates to outside its species or employ [[Express Delivery]] to bring on the next generation immediately. In extreme cases, there may be [[No Conservation of Mass|more total weight]] of offspring after a few generations than there was weight of available food. [[You Fail Physics Forever|Which is completely impossible]].
Often the real reason to fear a [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]], [[Small Annoying Creature]], or a [[Killer Rabbit]]. If an animated feature has any [[Funny Animal]] rabbits, this is an [[Obligatory Joke]].
Compare [[Mook Maker]]. Contrast [[Endangered Species]].
{{examples}}
== [[Advertising]] ==▼
▲== Advertising ==
* A Visa commercial showed a man buying a pair of rabbits for his daughter. After the man fills out a check, the pet store owner takes so long to verify it, the rabbits "get busy". The pet store gradually overflows with their offspring.
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==▼
▲== Anime and Manga ==
* The man-eating rabbits in ''[[Pet Shop of Horrors]]''.
* ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh (anime)|Yu-Gi-Oh]]'': Early on, Kuriboh's main strength comes from its ability to multiply into the thousands in the course of a single ''turn'', allowing them to swamp even the most powerful opponents with self-destruct attacks.
* ''[[Bio
* ''[[Digimon]]'': In the second movie
* Scarfies in ''[[Kirby:
* Human example, Big Mom from the Whole Cake Island Arc of ''[[One Piece]]''. She has ''85 children with 43 different husbands'', making her this and a [[Serial Spouse]]. Making this even more bizarre, she is 68 years old at the time of the Arc, her first child being born when she was 18, her last at age 60, as many births were twins or triplets, a few were quadruplets, and at least one case of deusuplets, that's ten children at once, with no miscarriages. Of course, whether she is truly a ''normal'' human is debatable, as stranger things have happened in this reality.
== [[Card Games]] ==▼
* There are a lot of things like this in ''[[Magic: The Gathering|Magic the Gathering]]'', although the ones that spring to mind immediately are the [[Hive Mind|Slivers]], [[Eldritch Abomination|the Eldrazi]], and [http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=180455 this.]▼
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* A human example is Mother of Champions from [[DC Comics]]. Her power is to conceive a litter of 25 children each time she has sex, who complete gestation in 3 days, after which she gives birth. These metahuman offspring are [[Super Strength|superhumanly strong]], but [[Younger Than They Look|age ten years for each day they're alive]], so they are used as expendable cannon fodder by the Chinese
* ''[[Myth Adventures]]'': In [[Phil Foglio]]'s comic adaptation, there's a [[Running Gag]] about small dragons that reproduce on contact with water. One of them happens to get into a market stall demonstrating umbrellas, and after that they keep showing up everywhere, until at the end of the scene the original owners are forced to round them all up. (The artist added even more dragons when the comic was reprinted as a graphic novel.) <ref>It is probably based on an earlier joke involving the same purple dragon(s) in his gamer humor strip, ''What's New?''</ref>
* ''[[Garfield (Comic Strip)|Garfield]]'': Played with in an early strip, in which the eponymous cat tosses a pair of ''coat hangers'' into an empty closet. It only takes ''until the end of the same 'strip'' for them to multiply until they fill the closet to bursting.
** Coat hangers? There is a joke he was probably not trying to make there...
* An issue of ''[[Star Trek|Star Trek: Alien Spotlight]]'' focuses on tribbles. In this version, they are at least semi-intelligent, and use their breeding offensively. There's also the implication that their breeding caused some sort of disaster, possibly due to lack of resources. And they did the breeding in response to Klingons ("rufflefurs") threatening the humans that showed up.
* Marvel's version of [[Loki (comics)|Loki]] combines this with [[Really Gets Around]]. He admits he has hundreds of children via relations with mortal women. ("I'm a Norse god," he tells [[Spider-Man]], "it... happens.") Oddly, however, he keeps track of them ''all'', presumably paying child support each time (another advantage to being an Asgardian) and [[Papa Wolf|woe to any villain]] who tries to harm one of them.
== [[Film]] ==▼
▲== Film ==
* ''[[Tron]]'': The Grid Bugs.
* Sammael in ''[[Hellboy (film)|Hellboy]]'' reproduces two copies of itself for each one that's killed.
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* The Crites in the ''[[Critters]]'' sequel were also rapid breeders.
* ''[[Gremlins]]'': The Mogwai/Gremlins. Don't get them wet.
* In the 1998 American ''[[Godzilla (film)|Godzilla]]'', the species of the mutant lizard was capable of laying up to two hundred eggs asexually, threatening to replace humans as the dominant species on Earth. {{spoiler|Imagine if the original Godzilla was capable of that?}}.
* ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' series: The Xenomorphs. Give the queen somewhere cozy and warm and she'll carpet it with eggs.
** A ''literal''
* ''[[Tremors]]'': Shriekers, the second stage of Graboid life-cycle are this.
* This applies to Dracula and his 3 brides in 2004's ''[[Van Helsing]]'', who have laid hundreds of vampire egg sacks and try to find any living creature
== [[Literature]] ==
* The guinea pigs in the short story "Pigs is Pigs" by Ellis Parker Butler (and the Disney cartoon adaptation).
** [[Truth in Television]]. Guinea pigs are rodents, and ''will'' breed like mice given half a chance. This is why getting the sex of guinea pigs [[Your Tomcat Is Pregnant|correctly identified]] before housing them together is important.
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* ''[[Fragment]]'': One reason the island organisms pose such a danger to the global ecosystem is that they're ''all'' this trope.
* ''[[Ringworld]]'': City Builders are extremely fertile, such that every act of mating within their species automatically results in offspring. Females also go into heat periodically, making abstinence all but impossible for them. They consciously subvert this trope by mating with other sorts of hominid.
* ''Henry Huggins'': One of the books in [[Beverly Cleary
* ''[[The Rolling Stones]]'' by [[Robert A. Heinlein]]: Martian Flat Cats. One flat cat produces a litter of eight kittens every thirty days or so. Not so bad comparatively, unless you're on the spacegoing equivalent of a RV and your trip lasts almost six months.
* The Gryphons in ''[[The Wayfarer Redemption]]'' were born
* ''[[Star Trek]]'': The most famous example is the tribbles, which did mention that they reproduce asexually. In fact, they are actually ''born'' pregnant, and as long as they're fed, they'll keep making more tribbles. [[Word of God]] states that the tribbles were based on the rabbits in Australia
▲== Live Action TV ==
▲* ''[[Star Trek]]'': The most famous example is the tribbles, which did mention that they reproduce asexually. In fact, they are actually ''born'' pregnant, and as long as they're fed, they'll keep making more tribbles. [[Word of God]] states that the tribbles were based on the rabbits in Australia <ref>In ''The Trouble With Tribbles: the Birth, Sale, and Final Production of One Episode'' David Gerrold says "Look — I thought I was telling the “rabbits in Australia” story. When rabbits were first introduced to Australia, they multiplied at an incredible rate because there were no predators or natural enemies to keep them in control. It was an ecology story -- and a spaceship is the perfect setting for it because a spaceship must be a balanced ecology."</ref>. It's probably a good thing the Klingons and tribbles instinctively hate each other, since otherwise they would have wiped out all life on several planets. Nuking their homeworld was probably a bit much. "Do they still sing songs about the Great Tribble Hunt?"
* ''[[Sanctuary]]'': The Nubbins. Basically tribbles with eyes and teeth, plus the ability to become mostly invisible. Oh, and they're sexually juiced up from lots and lots of pheromones, which also affect humans.
* In an episode of ''[[Father Ted]]'', Dougal got a pet rabbit, and promises Ted he'll be careful with it. Cut to a week later, and there are rabbits all over the room, and neither Ted nor Dougal even notice.
* On a season-finale episode of ''[[Hoarders]]'', a [[Truth in Television]] example played out for a man who'd let his three pet
* The Nanites, on ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]''.
* ''[[The Basil Brush Show]]'' used this as a [[Running Gag]]. In one episode. They bought two rabbits. However as the scenes pass, more and more appear.
{{quote|"There's these two here... And those two there! How did that happen?"}}
== [[Music]] ==
* This is the theme and gag at the center of [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXst4DXO5cA "Ya Wanna Buy a Bunny?"] by [[Spike Jones|Spike Jones and his City Slickers]]:
{{quote|''My 'rithmatic is gettin' bad,''
''I don't know what to do.''
''I bought a little bunny,''
''Then I bought another bunny.''
''Don't one and one make two?''}}
== [[Oral Tradition|Oral Tradition, Folklore, Myths and Legends]] ==
* Echidna, Mother of Monsters. Many adaptations (''[[Dungeons
▲* There are a lot of things like this in ''[[Magic: The
== [[Video Games]] ==
* ''Moria'', ''[[Angband]]'', and other related [[Roguelike
** In Angband, no breeder is as hated as the white lice. Unlike the somewhat slow worm masses, lice move ''quickly'', meaning that they also breed quickly, meaning that get out of hand very easily. ''White'' lice also move completely randomly, meaning that they won't all just run to die on the player character's sword and instead are likely to make the player chase them, breeding all the while, and swiftly take over the level. At that point they become an invincible force of a [[Death of a Thousand Cuts]] that cannot be beaten even by a character strong enough to kill Morgoth.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' has cats, which can actually breed so fast that if you dump a bunch into {{spoiler|'''[[Physical Hell|hell itself]]'''}} they will still breed faster than they are killed. Their, ah, fruitfulness, would not be a problem by itself, as only a very few animals need to eat yet and cats aren't one of them - so they're an infinite source of meat and leather, if you don't mind violating conservation of matter. However, unlike most animals, cats adopt their owners, and once this happens, they can't be butchered, and killing them in some other, [[Make It Look Like an Accident|completely unintentional]] fashion will give their pet dwarf a bad thought. Keeping them, on the other hand, will wreak havoc on your framerate - and of course, they'll breed more kittens. The worst parts are that their useful property (attempts to hunt vermin) tend to impact framerate more if they are contained.
** The massive framerate issues from an uncontrolled cat population has been nicknamed a "catsplosion".
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* The krogan of ''[[Mass Effect]]'' ''used'' to be this trope in order to withstand their [[Death World]] home planet. Scanning one former krogan colony world showed that they reached critical overpopulation in ''one generation''. If it weren't for the [[Depopulation Bomb|genophage]], they could easily have overrun the galaxy. The genophage reduces them to one live birth in a thousand (the rest being stillborn). If they didn't kill each other so fast this would leave them with fairly stable population ''growth'' rate.
** There are also Pyjacks, which are much like the Gizka before them in KOTOR. These were formerly called "space monkeys" in Mass Effect 1 and have become a major pest on the Krogan homeworld.
* ''[[
* Here's a fun experiment: Take any two [[Improbable Species Compatibility|compatible]] [[Pokémon]], and leave them at the Day Care. Once you have your egg, time how long it takes for the next one to appear. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130512072448/http://trickeria.deviantart.com/art/Pokemon-THAT-S-JUST-GROSS-167322186 Repeat ad nauseum.]
** If one of them has a different Trainer ID (was traded for), but they're both the same species, breeding will go insanely fast, and the Day Care owners will even comment that they seem to like each other a lot.
* In ''[[Epic Mickey]]'', Oswald the rabbit has 420 Bunny Children. They're adorable and eat [[Foot Soldier|mooks]].
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* ''[[Creatures]]'': Norns. Especially a genetic variant known as Fast-ager norns, who reach adulthood within seconds, live forever and are incredibly fertile. Many Fast-ager norns also go through pregnancy extremely fast, leaving them ready to breed almost immediately. If it weren't for the population limit preventing new eggs from hatching, they'd crash your game.
* In ''[[Galactic Civilizations]]'', the Torians and custom races with the same Super Ability breed ''four times as fast'' when they're happy. This tends to cause morale problems due to overpopulation, but on the other hand boosts your income (more people = more taxpayers) and makes it hard to invade your worlds unless the enemy has [[Kill'Em All|Spore Ships]].
* The ''[[Minecraft]]'' rabbits mod allows two rabbits to breed a baby rabbit when placed in close proximity. The issue it that this gets going exponentially when put in a small enough space: [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2clZL-9AIM\]
* In ''[[The Guardian Legend]]'', one of the enemies in the labyrinth areas is a [[Demonic Spider|blue spider]] that if left unkilled, turns orange, then red, then it splits into seven identical copies of itself. These individual copies can split even more, making things a little... complicated.
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Chakona Space]]'' has the Faleshkarti, when they reach maturity they become obsessed with sex, sex triggers a hormone that decreases their intelligence, and the only way to slow the hormone's progression is to get pregnant. Also, they're [[Hermaphrodite
== [[Western Animation]] ==▼
* Rabbits and rodents tend to show this trope. [[Truth in Television]]
▲== Western Animation ==
▲* Rabbits and rodents tend to show this trope. [[Truth in Television]] -- but often comically exaggerated.
** ''[[Rugrats]]'' has a pair of gerbils exploding into a huge, seething gerbil-sea in the basement in the space of two weeks.
** ''[[Ed, Edd 'n' Eddy]]'': a pair of rabbits reproduced so quickly that they filled a garage to bursting within a few hours. It did not help that Ed was allergic to rabbits. [[It Got Worse]]. The entire cul-de-sac was overshadowed by a ''tsunami made entirely of rabbits''.
{{quote|'''Johnny:''' I told you bunnies would take over the world! ''And they have!''}}
** Another Tex Avery cartoon (based on the [[Fairy Tale]] ''The Elves And the Shoemaker'') shows some elves towing a long rolling tray with two bunny slippers on the front of it. It goes behind a pillar, and when it comes out the other side, the tray is covered in tiny bunny slippers.
** A commercial pokes fun at the length of credit card verification by having a pair of rabbits a girl and her father bought multiply exponentially.
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* ''[[Futurama]]'': Started happening to penguins.
{{quote|"And the males have started laying eggs!"}}
* ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' : Bull Frogs were depicted as this when Bart, ignorant of the purpose of quarantine laws, brought one with him when the family went to Australia.
** This is also something of a [[Running Gag]] whenever Cletus shows up. At last count, he and his wife Brandine [[Incest Is Relative| (''presumably'' she's his wife, that's another running gag)]] have 44 children, an exaggerated stereotype of southern "rednecks".
* Whatever ''[[Chowder]]'' and Panini are, as they resemble rabbits. In the flash-forward finale, Panini has had ''fifty babies'', twenty of which she had popped out the previous day.
* ''[[The Smurfs]]'' had fuzzles, which multiplied whenever they ate something.
* ''[[The Angry Beavers]]'': The beavers decide to stay up all night because they're not tired. After a night of shenanigans and fun, they find themselves still not tired so they use various methods, including using a herd of sheep to sleep, to no avail. However little did they know the power of their alarm clock was off, leaving it the same time. They realize they have been awake for thousands of years when they find their house in the middle of a futuristic world over-populated entirely with sheep.
* ''[[My Little Pony:
* The Jakovasaurs on ''[[South Park]]''. The two that are the last of their kind breed and children keep popping out. When the town tries to get rid of them with a fixed game show, the prize is a trip to France for himself and 50 of his closest relatives.
** Oddly inverted with St. Peter Rabbit, who apparently had just ''one''
* In the fifth season of ''[[Samurai Jack]]''. the now elderly Scotsman has ''twenty-eight'' daughters, enough to form a small regiment of soldiers in the battle against Aku. And he's an [[Amazingly Embarrassing Parent]], unfortunately.
* In the ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1987 series)|Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' episode "The Big Zipp Attack", the heroes encounter a [[Ridiculously Cute Critter]] from Dimension X who is very hungry and [[Extreme Omnisexual| can eat anything]]. Eating copper causes it to split into two duplicates of itself, both just as hungry. They eventually discover that rigidium can cause them to merge into one critter again, but unfortunately, rigidium is [[Unobtainium| much, ''much'' rarer than copper.]]
* Even [[Bugs Bunny]] had to make a joke like this at least once. In "People are Bunny", he is able to answer a seemingly-tough multiplication problem in seconds, because as he puts it, "If there's one thing us rabbits can do, it's multiply."
* Another rabbit example, in ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]'', Babs has ''dozens'' of younger siblings, though oddly, Buster seems to be an only child.
== [[Real Life]] ==
* [[Truth in Television]] for [[wikipedia:R-selection#r-selection|many, many animals]]. These animals tend to be [[Everything Trying to Kill You|lower on the food chain]], so most of their offspring get eaten. That's why the planet hasn't been overrun yet. Moving one of these species to a new habitat that lacks their natural enemies, though, is a ''bad idea''. Case in point: rabbits and mice in Australia.
** Some microorganisms have a gestation period measured in ''[[wikipedia:Bacteria#Growth and reproduction|minutes]]''. Which is why they mutate so fast. What takes the average macroorganism (maturity at four years) to
*** To give you an idea of just how fast bacteria populations can grow if unrestricted, if it takes ten minutes for one bacterium to become two, then in an hour you will have sixty-four. In five hours you will have one billion. In twenty-four hours you will have 2.2 times 10^
** Many invertebrates facilitate this trope by breeding parthenogenetically, eliminating the delay imposed when a mate must be located. Aphids and rotifers are probably the best-known examples of this.
*** Aphids even go one step further than not needing to mate to get pregnant, they are actually born pregnant.
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