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.