In ecology, a weedy species is a species that lives in a wide variety of ecologies, including unstable ones and those damaged by humans. 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. (Ecology is sometimes used incorrectly as a synonym for the natural environment. ... In biology, a species is the basic unit of biodiversity. ... Dandelions, shown here in proliferation, are commonly thought of as weeds. ... Population dynamics is the study of marginal and long-term changes in the numbers, individual weights and age composition of individuals in one or several populations, and biological and environmental processes influencing those changes. ...

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. Species See text Dandelion (Taraxacum) is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. ... Binomial name Dreissena polymorpha Pallas, 1771 The Zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) is a mussel originally of southeast Russia. ... Subfamilies Geotriinae Mordaciinae Petromyzontinae A lamprey is a jawless fish with a toothed, funnel-like sucking mouth, with which most species bore into the flesh of other fishes to suck their blood. ... As defined by entomologists, a fly (plural flies) is any species of insect of the order Diptera, some of which can land on food and transmit bacteria to humans. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Genera Pentalagus Bunolagus Nesolagus Romerolagus Brachylagus Sylvilagus Oryctolagus Poelagus The bane of Australian farmers - the wild rabbit Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae, found in many parts of the world. ... Type species Ursus lotor Linnaeus, 1758 Species Procyon cancrivorus Procyon insularis Procyon lotor Raccoons are mammals native to the Americas in the genus Procyon of the Procyonidae family. ... Families Blaberidae Blattellidae Blattidae Cryptocercidae Polyphagidae Nocticolidae Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattodea (the name Blattaria is also seen). ... For other articles with the word centipede, go to Centipede (disambiguation). ... Binomial name Homo sapiens Linnaeus, 1758 Subspecies Homo sapiens idaltu(extinct) Homo sapiens sapiens Homo (genus). ... Definition of MICE IAPCO (the International Association of Professional Congress Organizers) publishes a book called Meetings Industry Terminology which functions as a dictionary for the meetings industry. ... Trinomial name Canis lupus familiaris (Linnaeus, 1758) The dog is a canine mammal of the Order Carnivora and it has been argued it has been domesticated for between 12,000 years and perhaps for as long as 150,000 years based on recent genetic evidence. ... An ecoregion is a relatively large area of land or water that contains a geographically distinct assemblage of natural communities. ... Africa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia /**/ @import /skins-1. ... Latin America consists of the countries of South America and some of North America (including Central America and some the islands of the Caribbean) whose inhabitants mostly speak Romance languages, although Native American languages are also spoken. ... World map showing Asia (geographically) Asia is the central and eastern part of Eurasia, and the worlds largest continent. ... Species 50 species; see text *Several subfamilies of Muroids include animals called rats. ... Definition of MICE IAPCO (the International Association of Professional Congress Organizers) publishes a book called Meetings Industry Terminology which functions as a dictionary for the meetings industry. ... Families Blaberidae Blattellidae Blattidae Cryptocercidae Polyphagidae Nocticolidae Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattodea (the name Blattaria is also seen). ...