An invasive species is a living organism that is not native to an area and causes harm once it arrives and spreads there.

Simple definition

  • It comes from somewhere else (another region or country).
  • It establishes itself in the new place and spreads quickly.
  • It causes damage to native plants and animals, ecosystems, the economy, or human health.

So not every foreign (non‑native) species is “invasive” — only the ones that spread and do harm.

A quick example

Imagine a plant brought in from another continent to decorate gardens. At first it looks harmless, but it has no natural predators in the new country, grows very fast, and starts taking over fields and forests, pushing out local plants and the animals that depend on them. That plant would be considered an invasive species.

TL;DR: An invasive species is a non‑native organism that spreads in a new place and harms the environment, the economy, or human health.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.