Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
Enemy release hypothesis
open-in-new
<p>The enemy release hypothesis is among the most widely proposed explanations for the dominance of exotic <a href="/facts/Invasive_species/Ya1v6RGx">invasive species</a>. In its <a href="/facts/Species_distribution/SAI9lJq9">native range</a>, a species has <a href="/facts/Coevolution/r7w308za">co-evolved</a> with <a href="/facts/Pathogen/axMXtV1M">pathogens</a>, <a href="/facts/Parasitism/HWPcgky7">parasites</a> and <a href="/facts/Predation/JEGdrX3f">predators</a> that limit its <a href="/facts/Population/ArxshNuB">population</a>. When it arrives in a new territory, it leaves these old enemies behind, while those in its introduced range are less effective at constraining the introduced species' population. The result is sometimes rampant growth that threatens <a href="/facts/Indigenous_(ecology)/03kpM3rf">native species</a> and <a href="/facts/Ecosystem/kVE8mSmR">ecosystems</a>. </p>