File:Lush vegetation at the Glaciares National Park (16551866578).jpg

English: Los Glaciares National Park (Spanish: Parque Nacional de Los Glaciares, "Glaciers National Park") is a federal protected area in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. The park covers an area of 7,269.27 km2 making it the second largest national park in the country. In 1980 it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.

The park's name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes range that feeds 47 large glaciers, of which 13 flow towards the Atlantic Ocean.

ECOLOGY

The mountains hold most of the humidity from the Pacific Ocean, letting through only the ice coldness (annual average of 7.5 °C (45.5 °F)) and creating the arid Patagonian steppe on the Argentine side of the range. This area is habitat for ñandúes, guanaco, cougar, and gray fox, the latter who has suffered from the invasion of the cattle industry and are endangered. The guanaco, while not endangered, has had a dramatic decline in historic population due to large scale grazing of livestock throughout much of Patagonia.[citation needed] There are over 1000 species of birds in the area (condors, eagles, and others), but only 100 have been registered. Between the ice and the Patagonian steppe there is a fertile area of Magellanic subpolar forests composed mainly of lengas and guindos, but also ñires. Within these more hospitable areas also live huemul deer and torrent duck [Wikipedia.org]