Wildlife in Miami — Miami, Florida

Miami, the county seat of Miami-Dade County, occupies the southeastern coast of mainland Florida along Biscayne Bay at the edge of one of the most ecologically complex zones in North America. The city borders the Atlantic Ocean to the east and grades westward into the Everglades ecosystem — a proximity that places two federally protected areas, Biscayne National Park and Everglades National Park, within the city's immediate regional landscape. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's South B Region administers law enforcement and wildlife management across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties, a jurisdiction that encompasses the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves, both national parks, and the full range of South Florida's native and non-native fauna.

Miami's tropical climate — defined by a wet season from June through October and temperatures that rarely fall below freezing — has enabled the establishment of numerous non-native reptile and plant species alongside native wildlife populations documented by the FWC and the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences. The result is an urban environment where residents encounter both globally significant native species and an expanding suite of invasive animals, making wildlife management one of the more operationally active areas of local and regional governance in South Florida.

Miami's physical setting is defined by low coastal elevation, the Atlantic coastal ridge, and the shallow-water Biscayne Bay estuary — a system supporting seagrass beds, mangrove shorelines, and a high diversity of marine fauna. The National Park Service documents Biscayne National Park as comprising four distinct ecosystems: shoreline mangrove swamp, the shallow waters of Biscayne Bay, coral limestone keys, and the offshore Florida Reef. Approximately 95% of Biscayne National Park's area is submerged, making it one of only two national parks in the United States composed primarily of underwater resources.

To the west, the Everglades — the dominant regional terrestrial ecosystem — border Miami-Dade County and support a markedly different suite of habitats: freshwater sloughs, wet prairies, cypress strands, and sawgrass marshes. The FWC documents the Everglades Wildlife Management Area as habitat for wading birds, raptors, and multiple threatened and endangered species. Mangrove shorelines along Biscayne Bay serve as transition zones between these freshwater and marine systems, functioning as nursery habitat for fish and as nesting and foraging areas for coastal birds.

Miami's consistently warm temperatures — a product of its tropical classification — have made the region unusually susceptible to the establishment of non-native species. The absence of sustained freezing winters, which would otherwise limit tropical reptile populations, is the primary ecological factor identified in research documents from the FWC and UF/IFAS as enabling the persistence of species such as the Burmese python and the green iguana in South Florida.

Biscayne National Park, located approximately 20 miles south of Miami, is administered by the National Park Service and encompasses the northernmost living coral reefs in the United States, according to the Biscayne National Park Institute. The park's four ecosystems — mangroves, Biscayne Bay, the coral limestone keys, and the offshore Florida Reef — are collectively managed for both conservation and regulated recreation, including scuba diving, snorkeling, and boating, activities the FWC documents as part of the regional ecotourism economy.

Everglades National Park, administered by the National Park Service and lying to the southwest of Miami, is the other principal federally managed wildlife area in Miami's regional matrix. The FWC South B Region provides law enforcement support within and adjacent to both parks and holds jurisdiction over the Biscayne Bay Aquatic Preserves, which fall under state management and form an ecologically connected buffer between urban Miami and the national park.

Wildlife management authority within Miami-Dade County is distributed across several agencies. The FWC's South B Region is the primary state-level enforcement and management body. The South Florida Water Management District administers the Python Elimination Program on public lands. Zoo Miami, a municipal institution, operates in partnership with the FWC on public invasive species awareness and reporting. Federal authority rests with the National Park Service within the boundaries of both national parks.

Biscayne National Park hosts some of the highest marine species diversity in the region. National Geographic reports documented populations of green sea turtles, hawksbill sea turtles, American crocodiles, West Indian manatees, bottlenose dolphins, smalltooth sawfish, and more than 600 native fish species within the park. The NPS documents coral reef ecosystems at Biscayne as the northernmost living reefs in the United States, supporting hundreds of species of reef fish, invertebrates, and corals.

In the Everglades system to the west, the FWC documents resident populations of wading birds — including herons, egrets, and ibis — alongside raptors and the endangered snail kite, a raptor whose diet depends almost exclusively on apple snails in freshwater marsh habitats. The Florida panther, listed as endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act, has a documented range that extends northward into Miami-Dade County's western agricultural and conservation lands, an area identified in wildlife corridor research as critical to the species' connectivity. The Florida black bear is also documented in the Everglades Wildlife Management Area, according to the FWC.

Miami's subtropical climate supports year-round populations of wading birds along Biscayne Bay's mangrove shorelines, and the bay itself serves as habitat for the American crocodile — a species that, unlike its alligator relatives, is primarily coastal and tolerates saltwater environments. The American crocodile is listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act and is among the species for which Biscayne National Park provides documented critical habitat.

Miami-Dade County sits at the epicenter of Florida's invasive species challenge. The Burmese python (Python bivittatus), first documented breeding in the Everglades in the 1990s, has become the most extensively managed invasive reptile in the state. A 2025 press release from the Executive Office of the Governor of Florida reported that more than 23,000 wild Burmese pythons have been removed from Florida and reported to the FWC since the year 2000, characterizing the species as among the most destructive in the Everglades ecosystem. Pythons are documented predators of native mammals, birds, and reptiles, and their suppression of prey populations has measurably altered food webs in the Everglades.

The green iguana (Iguana iguana), a Central and South American native, is established throughout Miami-Dade County and documented by the FWC as an unprotected non-native species in Florida except under state anti-cruelty statutes. Green iguanas are documented to damage seawalls, residential landscaping, and native vegetation, and their populations expand during warm weather. In January 2026, the FWC issued Executive Order 26-03, establishing special regulations for the removal of cold-stunned green iguanas — individuals rendered temporarily immobile by cold temperatures — from the wild. Under the order, property owners may humanely remove green iguanas year-round.

Other documented invasive species in the Miami-Dade region include several species of non-native lizards, fish, and plants, many of which entered the ecosystem through the pet trade or horticultural industry. The FWC maintains the invasive species reporting hotline 888-IVE-GOT1 as the primary public reporting mechanism.

Two regulatory actions with direct bearing on Miami-Dade County wildlife management were recorded in 2025 and early 2026. In January 2026, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission issued Executive Order 26-03, creating special provisions for the removal of cold-stunned green iguanas from the wild. Cold-stunning — a condition in which iguanas become immobile during brief cold spells — had previously created uncertainty about whether removal of apparently incapacitated animals was permissible. Under EO 26-03, green iguanas remain unprotected in Florida except by anti-cruelty laws and may be humanely removed year-round by property owners, with the executive order clarifying procedures specific to the cold-stunned condition.

On the python front, the South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program reported that the 2024 Florida Python Challenge attracted more than 850 participants who collectively removed nearly 200 Burmese pythons from public lands in South Florida. The 2025 press release from the Governor's office placed the cumulative removal total above 23,000 animals since 2000 and characterized ongoing python management as a conservation priority for the Everglades ecosystem. Both actions reflect the continuing evolution of state-level policy in response to the scale of non-native species establishment in the Miami-Dade region.

Zoo Miami operates a public invasive species reporting initiative in partnership with the FWC's invasive species hotline (888-IVE-GOT1). The partnership reflects the degree to which urban wildlife management has become a shared civic responsibility in South Florida, with the zoo serving as an accessible institutional point of contact for residents encountering non-native species. Zoo Miami is a municipal institution located within Miami-Dade County.

The South Florida Water Management District's Python Elimination Program recruits and trains contractors to remove Burmese pythons from public lands in the Everglades system, and the annual Florida Python Challenge is the program's public-facing competition component. The 2024 challenge drew more than 850 participants, according to the District's program documentation.

The FWC South B Region is the authoritative state agency for wildlife law enforcement and management questions in Miami-Dade County. The FWC's regional structure covers Miami-Dade, Broward, and Monroe counties and administers regulations governing both native species protections and non-native species management programs. Residents observing suspected violations of wildlife law or seeking information on regulated species are directed to this regional office as the primary point of contact within the state agency system.