Animals have evolved diverse reproductive strategies under the influence of abiotic and biological factors. Reproductive suppression is an adaptive strategy in animal reproduction. Reproductive suppression affects the success and efficiency of animal reproduction, which in turn affects the survival, population continuation and evolution of animals. With the development of multiple disciplines, there have been new advances in the study of reproductive suppression. There are many related studies on reproductive suppression abroad, and its importance in animals has been widely recognized, but the domestic research on reproductive suppression is insufficient. Thus, this paper firstly explains the basic concept and function of reproductive suppression. Reproductive suppression refers to the inhibition or damage to the normal reproductive development, reproductive physiology, or reproductive behavior of animals due to the impact of specific environment factors (including light, temperature, rainfall and food resources) or their own condition factors (population density, social rank, hormone), which makes animals reduce or lose their reproductive capacity. Reproductive suppression is one of the reproductive strategies that can benefit animals. It can reduce animal competition for resources by limiting population densities and by reducing direct competition for mates, resources, or territories and reduce animal offspring's competition for resources, mates, or territories. By recruiting non-reproductive alloparents and/or monopolizing on parental care from conspecifics, a suppressed female can benefit by avoiding reproduction when it is unlikely to be successful (e.g., high levels of competition or infanticide). It also can adjust the dynamic balance of animal population. Secondly, the theoretical models of reproductive suppression such as dominance control model, self-restraint model and incomplete control model, reproductive suppression modes including behavioral suppression and physiological suppression, mechanism of reproductive suppression, and the effects of environmental factors and animal factors on reproductive suppression. Thirdly, the reproductive suppression can occur at many life stages including early life or adolescence (e.g., delaying puberty, delaying or suppressing vaginal patency, and increasing time to first estrus), ovulation or the estrus cycle (e.g., preventing copulation, preventing ovulation, increasing anovulatory time, inducing pseudopregnancies), after fertilization and pregnancy (e.g., preventing implantation, or inducing abortion, reabsorption, and feticide), and after birth (e.g., infanticide). Finally, the prospect of reproductive suppression in biological resource management, animal population density control, and animal protection and utilization are presented, aiming to enrich the research progress. This study helps to understand the diversity of animal reproductive strategies through reproductive suppression, and provides a theoretical reference for the subsequent management of biological resources.