Established on 11 May 1937,[1] it hosts a representative sample of Magellanic subpolar forest and west Patagonian steppe biodiversity in good state of conservation.

[3][4] The park's name refers to the giant ice cap in the Andes, the largest outside of Antarctica, Greenland and Iceland, feeding 47 large glaciers, of which 13 flow towards the Pacific Ocean.

[3] Los Glaciares, of which 30% is covered by ice, can be divided in two parts, each corresponding with one of the two elongated big lakes partially contained by the park.

[6] 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 rheas, guanaco, cougar, and South American gray fox, the latter of which 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.