Everglades National Park - Florida - Wild Life in USA - Travel & Discover

Everglades National Park is one of the largest and most well-known of America's national parks. It was also the first of America's parks to be preserved, not for its scenic wonders, but because of the magnificence of its biological resources. Currently, it is the third largest national park in the contiguous 48 states, smaller only than Death Valley and Yellowstone National Parks. The Everglades is located on the extreme southern section of the Florida peninsula. The geography of Everglades National Park places it at the confluence of temperate North America and the tropical Caribbean. Consequently, the region's flora hosts representatives of both climes. The park's wide variety of flowering plants is especially beautiful at the beginning of the wet season, when many of them are in bloom. The subtropical climate and abundant summer moisture of southern Florida support the glades' rich vegetation. 100 species of seed-bearing plants can be found in the park, along with 120 species of trees. Many plants in the Everglades are found nowhere else on Earth. The optimal growing conditions typical of the South Florida peninsula foster a lush growth of plant life that sustains a diverse complex of flora. Water in South Florida once flowed freely from the Kissimmee River to Lake Okeechobee and southward over low-lying lands to the estuaries of Biscayne Bay, the Ten Thousand Islands, and Florida Bay. This shallow, slow-moving sheet of water covered almost 11,000 square miles, creating a mosaic of ponds, sloughs, sawgrass marshes, hardwood hammock, and forested uplands. Over thousands of years, this intricate system evolved into a finely balanced ecosystem that formed the biological infrastructure of the southern half of the state. The Ten Thousand Islands area of Everglades National Park composes part of the largest standard protected mangrove forest in the western hemisphere. This unique ecosystem supports an assemblage of plant and animal species not found elsewhere on the planet. While nine distinct habitats have been identified, the landscape remains dynamic. Ecosystems remain in a constant state of flux, subject to the If there is any animal which is synonymous with the National Park, it is surely the American alligator in the Everglades. The largest of about 50 reptile species native to the Everglades, this animal can be found in large numbers in various places throughout the park. This reptile, the largest in the Americas, is a remnant of the Mesozoic era, 245 to 65 million years ago. The alligator is surprisingly mobile, able to cover as many as 8 kilometers across land a day, if necessary. The alligator's typical meal may be 20% of its current weight. The Everglades crocodile is slimmer than the alligator and has a longer, more tapered snout. The crocodile feeds primarily on fish. On May 30, 1934, an act was passed authorizing a park to be acquired through This mandate to preserve wilderness and its biota was one of the strongest in the legislative history of the National Park System. Thirteen years later, through a combination of federal, state, and private lands, a vast wetland teeming with life was dedicated as a National Park. Everglades was the first National Park preserved primarily for its abundance and variety of life, rather than for scenic or historic values. In 1947, President Harry S. Truman formally dedicated Everglades National Park in a ceremony held at Everglades City. This event culminated years of effort by a dedicated group of conservationists to make a National Park in the Florida Everglades a reality. Ernest F. Coe, a Yale-educated landscape architect, made the Everglades Park Project his life work shortly after moving to Miami in 1925. In 1928, Coe and others organized the Tropical Everglades Park Association, later known as the Tropical Everglades National Park Association, devoted solely to the creation of a National Park in South Florida. At the end of the 19th century, the South Florida coast was still largely wilderness, one of the last coastal regions east of the Mississippi to be settled. Only three small communities, Chokoloskee, Keep Sable, and Flamingo, existed along the coast of what is now Everglades National Park. Everglades National Park is a subtle place where earth, water, and sky blend in a low green landscape, where mere inches of elevation produce distinct changes in vegetation, and where a great wealth of birds and other wildlife find refuge. For this is almost exclusively a biological park dedicated to the preservation of a complex and precisely ordered living mechanism. It lies at the interface between temperate and subtropical America, hosting a rich diversity of species, many at the limit of their ranges. The topography is so subdued that a broad sheet of water slowly flows over and through the porous limestone bedrock on its way to the sea, rather than following well-defined valleys. Most of the park is covered with water during the wet season, while dry winters cause fresh water to dwindle to the few open areas crowded with wildlife. The great floral variety of the Everglades is one of the park's key resources. Known for its vast natural landscapes, the Everglades have long been home and hunting grounds for many people and Native American tribes. Since the emergence of the River of Grass, Native Americans, and later on Anglo-American settlers known as Gladesmen, traversed the wild landscape to explore its mysteries and came to rely on its abundant natural resources. Before the arrival of the Spanish in 1513, the region in South Florida that is now the Everglades National Park was largely inhabited by the Native American Caloosah tribe. Emerging around 1000 BC, the Caloosah maintained a highly organized society and left behind many traces of their civilization, including large-scale architectural shell works, shell tools, carved wood, and long-distance canoe trails. Later, developers would make their mark on the land in a different way, seeking to alter the wetland landscape by draining the land and At the end of the 19th century, the South Florida coast was still largely wilderness, one of the last coastal regions east of the Mississippi to be settled. Another of the Everglades' remarkable attractions is its tremendous variety of birds, the largest congregation in the United States. The Everglades provide habitat for nesting birds, as well as serving as a stop-off point for many migrating species. All told, about 326 species can be found in the park, attracted by the abundance of fish in the park's waters, as well as other food. The park contains the greatest concentration of wading birds on the North American continent. Although the Everglades still has many birds, the numbers are currently significantly lower than in the past. It is estimated that the population of has declined by as much as 90% since the 1930s and 40s. In the early part of the century, many of the most magnificent species, such as the egret, were hunted almost to extinction for their plumage, then fashionable on women's hats. Here are three of the common varieties of birds found in the Everglades. First is the great blue heron. Next is an anhinga, or snakebird. And finally the egret. The great blue heron is the largest and most widespread of the herons, found throughout the continent of North America. They have ornamental plumage on both their heads and tails. The great blue heron forages for small fish, frogs, snakes, salamanders, and even baby alligators. The turkey vulture lives on the carrion it finds on the ground. The female anhinga is slightly different in appearance to the male, especially its head, which is brown rather than black. The Everglades have been lauded as the stage from which yearly spectacles of avian life can be watched. Amidst the life-giving waters of the river of grass, immense flocks of countless birds quench their thirst, satisfy their hunger, rest during lengthy migrations, and raise their young. Slight changes in elevation, water salinity, and soil create entirely different landscapes, each with its own community of plants and animals. The landscapes we see today in South Florida are a direct result of geologic events of the past. Though Everglades National Park is often characterized as a water marsh, several very distinct habitats exist within its boundaries. The distinct habitats include the Florida Bay, the mangrove forest, the coastal prairie, the cypress tree, the hardwood hammocks, the freshwater slaw, the Everglades estuary, and the pinelands. The Everglades are also an important archaeological site. Recent surveys in the Everglades and within the Big Cypress Swamp indicate the presence of at least several hundred archaeological sites within the interior of South Florida. Some of these sites prove to be substantial and suggest more than just marginal or short-term use. South Florida has been settled since around and has been chronologically categorized up until 1930. The Paleo-Indians likely lived with mammoths, bison, and other types of megafauna in arid climate conditions. With the extinction of these animals, the Paleo-Indian adapted to the changing climate and emerging wetlands by establishing patterns of subsistence. During the post-glacial period, the sea level rose and diminished Florida's landmace and the climate began to change. Around 5,000 years ago, cypress swamps and hardwood forests, characteristic of subtropical terrain, began to develop. The Glades' first, second, and third periods are dated and characterized by pottery types. During the Glades' second and third periods, evidence of a thriving trade network includes a variety of exotic resources, such as stoneworking tools and ornaments. This historic contact period includes the arrival of the Europeans and their encounter with a thriving population of at least five separate tribes, the Tequesta in southeast Florida, the Caloosan in the southwest, and the Jayakanese along the east coast north of the Tequesta and the Mayaimi near Lake Okeechobee. There is little information regarding activities in the area south of Lake Okeechobee before the 19th century. With the demise of indigenous people in south Florida and white settlement occurring to the north, increasing migrations of Creek peoples moved southward to hunt and settle. Alone among our hemisphere's national parks, the Everglades hold three international designations, International Biosphere Reserve in 1976, World Heritage Site in 1979, and Wetland of International Significance in 1987. The International Biosphere Reserve is a project of the Man and Biosphere Program of UNESCO. Reserves are protected samples of the world's major ecosystem types.