The Anhinga Trail is a short trail (about 0.4 miles) in the Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park

Everglades National Park is a national park in the U.S. state of Florida that protects the southern 25 percent of the original Everglades. It is the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States, and is visited on average by one million people each year. It is the third-largest...

. Located 4 miles from the park entrance, it starts at the Royal Palm Visitor Center. The trail is a paved walkway and a boardwalk

Boardwalk

A boardwalk, in the conventional sense, is a wooden walkway for pedestrians and sometimes vehicles, often found along beaches, but they are also common as paths through wetlands, coastal dunes, and other sensitive environments....

 over Taylor Slough

Taylor Slough

Taylor Slough, located in the southeastern corner of the Florida Everglades, along with the much larger Shark River Slough farther to the west, are the principal natural drainages for the freshwater Everglades....

, a freshwater sawgrass

Cladium

Cladium is a genus of large sedges, with a worldwide distribution in tropical and temperate regions...

 marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

. Abundant wildlife is visible from the trail, including alligator

Alligator

An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator and the Chinese alligator ....

s, turtle

Turtle

Turtles are reptiles of the order Testudines , characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield...

s, anhinga

Anhinga

The Anhinga , sometimes called Snakebird, Darter, American Darter, or Water Turkey, is a water bird of the warmer parts of the Americas. The word "anhinga" comes from the Brazilian Tupi language and means devil bird or snake bird.It is a cormorant-like bird with an average body length of , a...

s, heron

Heron

The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....

s, and egret

Egret

An egret is any of several herons, most of which are white or buff, and several of which develop fine plumes during the breeding season. Many egrets are members of the genera Egretta or Ardea which contain other species named as herons rather than egrets...

s. it is one of the most popular trails in the Park. On November 5, 1996, it was added to the U.S.

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 National Register of Historic Places

National Register of Historic Places

The National Register of Historic Places is the United States government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures, and objects deemed worthy of preservation...

.

In 2003, tourists witnessed a fight between an alligator and a Burmese python

Burmese Python

The Burmese Python is the largest subspecies of the Indian Python and one of the 6 largest snakes in the world, native to a large variation of tropic and subtropic areas of Southern- and Southeast Asia. They are often found near water and are sometimes semi-aquatic, but can also be found in trees...

 which went on for 24 hours, until a larger alligator joined the fight and the snake escaped. Video and news coverage of the fight was widespread and brought attention to the spread of the python, an invasive species

Invasive species

"Invasive species", or invasive exotics, is a nomenclature term and categorization phrase used for flora and fauna, and for specific restoration-preservation processes in native habitats, with several definitions....

, in the Everglades.

External links

• Anhinga Trail – Everglades National Park – National Park Service
• Dade County listings at National Register of Historic Places
• Everglades National Park Map at National Park Service
• The Anhinga Trail at Birding America
• Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Homestead Florida at Naturescapes.net
• Aerial close-up of Anhinga Trail