Everglades National Park is a 1.5-million-acre wetlands preserve on the southern tip of the U.S. state of Florida. Often compared to a grassy, slow-moving river, the Everglades is made up of coastal mangroves, sawgrass marshes and pine flatwoods that are home to hundreds of animal species.

Unlike early national parks established to protect majestic scenery, Everglades National Park was established to preserve a portion of the vast Everglades ecosystem as wildlife habitat. The park is home to a vast array of animals that have adapted to a subtropical environment in which temperate climatic conditions, characteristic of latitudes to the north, merge with tropical Caribbean conditions. Geology, hydrology, air quality, water quality, fire regime, weather, and climate are but a few of the many natural factors that help shape the development of landscapes in the Everglades. The actions of humans also have a strong influence. The introduction of nonnative species, disruptive water-management activities, the disturbance of natural processes, climate change, and air, water, light, and noise pollution have all worked to undermine the integrity of the historic ecosystem.