Weedy species

In ecology, a weedy species is a species that lives in a wide variety of ecologies, including unstable ones and those damaged by man. It refers to both plants (not quite the same as the definition of a weed proper) and animals. A 'weedy' animal can subsist on a variety of foods, opportunistically, and has population dynamics that tend to prevent it from depending over-much on abundance. Very often, it thrives in environments that are so damaged by man as to be uninhabitable by other species.

Examples of weedy species are:

• dandelions
• zebra mussels
• lampreys
• flies
• rats
• rabbits
• raccoons
• cockroaches
• centipedes
• humans
• mice
• dogs

Weedy species often overrun the native species of ecoregions they are introduced to. For instance, rabbits rapidly displaced native marsupial species in Australia. Feral dogs often displace other species especially in Africa and Latin America (where people do not generally eat dogs, unlike Asia). Rats, mice and cockroaches often overwhelm urban areas.