# What is the best animal to see in the Everglades?

> Some stars of this swamp are impossible to miss; others reward a dawn boat ride and a lot of patience. Reptiles, wading birds and a few shy mammals all make a case for the top spot.

*By YPB Team · Published October 12, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/what-is-the-best-animal-to-see-in-the-everglades*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **West Indian manatee** — score 1000/1000
   A gentle, slow-moving sea cow that drifts through Flamingo's marina and the Gulf Coast bays.
2. **American alligator** — score 856/1000
   The Everglades' signature reptile, seen sunning on nearly every canal bank and along the Anhinga Trail.
3. **Wood stork** — score 807/1000
   A large, bald-headed stork and the Everglades' threatened wetland indicator species.
4. **Great blue heron** — score 592/1000
   A tall, patient hunter standing motionless in sawgrass marshes and canals.
5. **American flamingo** — score 592/1000
   A once-vanished pink icon now returning to Florida Bay in small flocks.
6. **Snail kite** — score 513/1000
   An endangered raptor that feeds almost entirely on apple snails in the sawgrass marsh.
7. **Florida panther** — score 513/1000
   An endangered cougar subspecies with fewer than 250 left, the park's rarest and most prized sighting.
8. **North American river otter** — score 513/1000
   A playful fish-hunter that pops up in freshwater sloughs and canals.
9. **Osprey** — score 420/1000
   A fish hawk that nests on channel markers and dives feet-first into the bays.
10. **Florida black bear** — score 420/1000
   A reclusive subspecies of black bear that roams the Big Cypress edge of the park.
11. **Bald eagle** — score 420/1000
   The national bird nesting in tall pines and mangroves around Florida Bay.
12. **Gopher tortoise** — score 420/1000
   A burrowing tortoise of the pinelands whose tunnels shelter hundreds of other species.
13. **Bottlenose dolphin** — score 308/1000
   Pods that ride boat wakes in Chokoloskee Bay and the Ten Thousand Islands.
14. **Roseate spoonbill** — score 308/1000
   A pink wading bird with a spoon-shaped bill that sweeps the shallows of Florida Bay.
15. **American crocodile** — score 0/1000
   A shy, saltwater-tolerant crocodile that shares the Florida Bay mangroves with alligators, the only place on Earth where both live together.
16. **Anhinga** — score 0/1000
   The snakebird that spears fish underwater, then dries its wings on the trail named after it.
17. **Burmese python** — score 0/1000
   An invasive giant constrictor that has become the Everglades' most notorious resident.
18. **Bobcat** — score 0/1000
   A stealthy wildcat occasionally spotted at dawn along the Shark Valley loop.

Tags: nature, usa, animals, national-parks, everglades, florida