General Fun Facts

Animal Kingdom Header

Opening Day
1. On open day, 22 April 1998, the parking lot was closed just 20 minutes after the park opened!
2. The Orange County Sheriff's Office sent almost 150 deputies to the opening of Disney's Animal Kingdom to prepare for a big animal rights demonstration that never took place. Instead, at most two dozen people showed up to protest, claiming Disney has mistreated animals at the park. The USDA cleared Disney of any wrong doing. The protest lasted about two hours. There were no arrests.
  REPORTED: Orlando Sentinel 24 APR 98
3. At 2:30 pm opening day, a banner-towing airplane hired by Team Toad -- a group of Mr. Toad fans -- circled the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom protesting the rumored removal of Mr. Toad from Fantasyland..
4. There were around 2,500 cast members employed at Animal Kingdom for opening day.
From the sky above Animal Kingdom (or using the Animal Kingdom map), Animal Kingdom appears to be in the shape of Africa.
REPORTED: Pixxie 06 JUL 00
In a 1953 magazine article,"What I've Learned from Animals," Walt Disney himself wrote, "Some of the most facinating people I have ever met are animals... The more human they are the funnier they seem to us, and the better we understand them."
Disney's Animal Kingdom was first proposed in 1989.
In the Walt Disney World book, "Since the World Began," there is a section on Disney's Animal Kingdom. There are several photos of conceptual art for upcoming attractions. While plans historically change, there is a roller coaster pictured near a dinosaur dig area (the dinosaur dig looks like a playground) and it does not look inverted. Also, there is a boat ride pictured that seems to have been inspired by the Pastoral sequence of Fantasia (with fauns and pegasus). Also pictured is a hedge maze called "Quest for the Unicorn."
UPDATE: Dan Alexander 08 OCT 96
Disney's Animal Kingdom cost an estimated $800 million..
Disney's Animal Kingdom is the fifth major theme park that Disney has built in the United States.
The park's restaurants seat more than 2,200 diners.
There are no cup lids or paper straws anywhere in the park because of the danger to the animals.
CONFIRMED: Melanie Emmons 25 SEP 98
The original name for Animal Kingdom was Wild Animal Kingdom, it was changed so that it did not sound close to Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.
REPORTED: anon 06 OCT 97
The park is five times the size of the Magic Kingdom making it the largest Disney Theme Park in the world. It is a 580 acre park including many species of wildlife, including Africian plains animals.
REPORTED: Joseph Weeks 16 SEP 95
CONFIRMED: Darren Palmer 12 DEC 95
CONFIRMED: Dana Short 13 DEC 95
CONFIRMED: Ian M. Vance 26 AUG 96
CONFIRMED: TR Shaw 27 DEC 96
Unlike Bush Gardens and Sea World, Animal Kingdom is photo real
Joe Rohde was the executive Imagineer for Animal Kingdom. Hired by Disney in 1980. Some of his paintings can be found in the park. He also was executive Imagineer for the Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island.
Melody Malmberg wrote "The Making of Disney's Animal Kingdom" and is the wife of Joe Rohde
Todd Crawford is the associate brand manager for Animal Kingdom
Paul Comstock is the principal landscape Imagineer for Animal Kingdom
David Brickey is the principal interior Imagineer for Animal Kingdom
Rick Barongi, formally head of the San Diego Zoo, is the director of animal project development for Animal Kingdom
Dr. Peregrine Wolff is the park's director of veterinary services.
Joseph Rindler oversees the food preparation for the animals.
The famous Swiss painter Rolf Knie has been designing 30 fantasy-animals for daily parade for Disney's Animal Kingdom to debut during the park's great opening on April 22. Michael Eisner likes Knie's paintings very much and intends to build a studio inside Disney World for the painter.
REPORTED: Markus Schoch 17 APR 98
You will almost never hear an off-stage Animal Kingdom cast member of any sort call the park by it's name. Cast members tend to call it DAK, which is of course an abreviation for Disney's Animal Kindgom. All DAK cast members have to go to an orientation program before they start work (this is true in all the parks, but DAK is the only park that has a name for theirs). Other's are called welcome day and things like that called DAKlimation. Also...Cast members really aren't supposed to just say "Animal Kingdom" to guests. It is always supposed to be preceded by "Disney's".
REPORTED: anon 18 JUL 99
I was perusing your very interesting site, and in the Animal Kingdom section, saw that cast members refer to the park as DAK. An interesting aside, that acronym also has another meaning, also pertaining to Africa in a way. Somewhere in 1942, I believe, the combined forces of the 21st Panzer division and the 90th Light division and their ancillerie units were combined into one large command, the Deutches Afrika Korps, or DAK. Indeed Rommels Army in Africa was also DAK. Amusing coincidence.
REPORTED: Michael J Tahirak 14 JUN 04
Cast members from all areas of the Animal Kingdom (aside from Rafiki's Planet Watch) are encouraged to develope "characters" for themselves called "niches". If you ask a cast member how they came to live in their surroundings, most will play with you. Some will tell you fantastical stories about how they got to their "home". Cast members in Africa, Asia, and Discovery Island are supposed to be villagers who live and work in their areas. Cast members in Camp Minnie-Mickey are supposed to be camp counselors. And members in Dinoland are supposed to be various students and workers that have come to study with the Dino Institute. Harambe CMs from the states tell tales of being lost at sea and washing up on the coastal town, or crashing in an airplane. Most will point to a second story window and tell you that is their room. Dinoland CMs also tend to go a little wild with their stories. Everyone should try this.
REPORTED: anon 18 JUL 99
Cast members at Disney's Animal Kingdom don't neccessarily clockout at Wardrobe. Animal Kingdom has what is called "Castzooming" which means they can take their costumes home. Clocking in and out occurs at stations close to their work locations.
CONFIRMED: anon 17 SEP 99
DeVine is a very interesting walk around character. In some ways it is like the walking trash can or the living statues. It is usually found in the Animal Kingdom but can be found anywhere in the Magic Kingdom
Nine Walt Disney Imagineering landscape architects, Paul Comstockm, Bill Evans and ?, created the botanical environment of the Animal Kingdom.
Unlike the traditional Disney parks where the landscaping complements themed buildings, at Disney's Animal Kingdom the landscaping, in many areas, is the stage and set. Trees are as characters into the landscape, taking into consideration size, shade and accent. If the ideal plant could not be used, Disney uses stand ins, like the live oak for the acacia, to play the part.
Disney keeps a large cast of plant characters at hand at the Walt Disney World Tree Farm.
The first tree planted in December of 1995 was an Acacia xanthophlosa
There are over 4,000 varieties of trees and plants in Disney's Animal Kingdom. 16,000 of the trees were grown in Florida at the Walt Disney World Tree Farm including 850 species of trees (40 species of palm trees alone). In addition to the home-grown plants, Disney visited 37 states and 20 countries, such as Madagascar, Botswana, South Africa, Bali, Thailand, Tasmania, Nepal and the People's Republic of China, to get other flora for Animal Kingdom. Disney's Animal Kingdom has plants from every continent on Earth except Antarctica.
CONFIRMED: Jason Dixon 24 MAR 00
The first tree planted at the site in December 1995 was an authentic Acacia xanthophlosa, grown from a seed that Disney acquired in Africa.
Disney has the third largest cycad collection in all of North America -- more than 3,000 of the ancient, fern-like plants.
The park has about 100 species of trees and shrubs foreign to North American soil.
Disney was able to conserve hundreds of native oak trees and much of the natural native plants.
Disney also used nurseries in California, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Arizona and Florida.
Four distinct environments landscaping highlights in park are the tropical Oasis at the entry; the Cretaceous Forest and magnolia grove in DinoLand U.S.A.; the riverine environments, grasslands and Pangani Forest in Africa; and the rich rain foest and temples of Asia.
I'm sorry that I can't be more specific, but my father works for a forestry company called Rayonier in North Florida, and Disney bought 50 oak trees from them. Disney cut them into pieces and put them back together all over the park. So some of the trees you see in Animal Kingdom are real, not persay, alive.
REPORTED: Katherine 25 MAR 01

There are three fences around the entire park. One fence is to keep the animals in; one fence is to keep the native Florida animals out and the third fense is to keep people out. As much as Disney tries, native Florida creatures still find ways to enter the park. Usually, they are caught and released elsewhere on Disney property. However, one family of foxes, re-entered

Plant

Fact	Figure
Plants Planted	More than 4 million
Shrubs Planted	More than 2.3 million
Trees Planted	40,000
Tree Species	850
Shrub Species	2,000
Grass Species	260
Cycads	more than 3,000
Plant Origins	37 states and 20 countries

There are many fake trees through the park. There are some in each land, plus 7 baobobs, and many feeders located out in the Africa area, and feeders located in Oasis Gardens that look like trees.
REPORTED: anon 06 OCT 97
Imagineers had considered allowing the Lions to hunt but they would have needed 50,000 acres instead of the 500 that they had.
Animal Kingdom has over 300 species of animals, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish and insects represented - There are a total of over 1100 animals at the park.

One of Walt Disney World's oldest attractions has fallen prey to one of its youngest. Discovery Island, an 11-acre zoo whose attendance has been hurt by last year's opening of Disney's 500-acre Animal Kingdom, will be closed on April 8, exactly 25 years after it opened. Discovery Island -- the last home of the now extinct dusky seaside sparrow -- has been in the works since Disney announced plans for its fourth major theme park, which opened in April 1998.
REPORTED: The Orlando Sentinel 26 MAR 99

Animal

Aardvark	Golden-Rumped Agouti	Giant Anteater	Sable Antelope	Bearded Barbet	Brown-Breasted Barbet
Red Barbet	Yellow Barbet	Carmine Bee-Eater	Binturong Bongo	Bontebok	Kori Bustard
Yellow-Fronted Canary	Capybara	Snowey-Headed Robin Chat	Cheetah	Chinchilla	Lake Victoria Cichlids
Coatimundi	Greater Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo	Salmon-Crested Cockatoo	East African Crowned Crane	West African Crowned Crane	Demoiselle Crane
Stanley Crane	Nile Crocodile	Axis Deer	Tufted Deer	Dik-Dik	Miniature Donkey
Emerald-Spotted Wood Dove	Comb Duck	Egyptian Duck	Hartlaub's Duck	Mandarin Duck	White-Faced Whistling Duck
Yellow-Backed Duiker	Golden Eagle	Echidna	Patterson's Eland	African Elephant	Fennec Fox
Ferret	Greater Flamingo	Tawny Frogmouth	Dama Gazelle	Thompson's Gazelle	Gerenuk
Reticulated Giraffe	Goat	Goose	Western Lowland Gorilla	Guinea Pig	Helmeted Guineafowl
Kenya Crested Gunieafowl	Hammerkop	Nile Hippopotamus	African Hoopoe	Abyssinian Ground Hornbill	Rock Hyrax
Hadada Ibis	Scarlet Ibis	Rhinocerous Iguana	Impala	African Jacana	Long-Eared Jerboa
Red Kangaroo	Tree Kangaroo	White-Collared Kingfisher	Kinkajou	Klipsringer	Greater Kudu
Ring-Tailed Lemur	African Lion	Blue And Yellow Macaw	Green-Winged Macaw	Hyacinth Macaw	Lama Macaw
Military Macaw	Scarlet Macaw	Mandrill	Meerkat	Kikuyu Colobus Monkey	Blue-Naped Mousebird
Reeves' Muntjac	Naked Mole-Rat	Lowland Nyala	Okapi	Opossum	Scimitar-Horned Oryx
Ostrich	Asian Small-Clawed Otter	Great Horned Owl	Screech Owl	Pot-Bellied Pig	Green Pigeon
Olive Pigeon	Bahama Pintail	Red-Billed Pintail	West Grey Plantain-Eater	Rosybill Pochard	Porcupine
Lop-Eared Rabbit	Black Rhinocerous	White Rhinocerous	Lilac-Brested Roller	Gulf Coast Native Sheep	Tunis Sheep
Cape Shelduck	Magpie Shrike	Striped Skunk	Two-Toed Sloth	African Spoonbill	Roseate Spoonbill
Spotted Cuscus	Amethyst Starling	Marabou Stork	Saddle-Billed Stork	White Stork	Yellow-Billed Stork
Malachite Sunbird	Scarlet-Chested Sunbird	Black-Necked Swan	Tamandua	Cotton-Topped Tamarin	Golden Lion Tamarin
Malayan Tapir	Cape Teal	Hottentot Teal	Marbled Teal	Ringed Teal	Tenrec
Galapaos Tortoise	Violaceous Touracao	White-Cheeked Touracou	Soft-Shelled Turtle	Cape Vulture	Ruppel's Vulture
Warthog	Common Waterbuck	Ellipsen Waterbuck	Taveta Golden Weaver	Chiloe Wigeon	White-Bearded Wildebeest
Grant's Zebra	Grevey Zebra

Parrots only repeat words with no conscious thought as to what they are saying? Not! These facts can be confirmed by video reference of an episode of "Scientific American Frontiers". Irene Pepperberg of the University of Arizona demonstrated a parrot, named Alex, who could name objects, types of materials, colors, as well as count & grasp abstract concepts. Granted this information is not well known, however it is a matter of public knowledge and proven under controled scientific conditions.
REPORTED: Wayne and Hanzel 24 APR 99
Most of the animals at Animal Kingdom are "scale trained"; this means that they are trained to walk up on their own onto a scale to be weighed, rather than being forced to do so. They are rewarded with a clicker and a small treat, making their vet visits an enjoyable experience.
REPORTED: Kim Parker 05 DEC 98
Making meals for the more than 1,000 animals at Disney's latest theme park, Animal Kingdom, is no small task when the animals consume two tons of food each day.
Oranges that end up on the breakfast tables of Disney resort hotels come from the same shipment as the ones fed to the park's monkeys.
The horse meat eaten by the park's lions and cheetahs is inspected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Disney chefs from the resort hotels who have seen the kitchen where workers' prepare the animals' food are surprised at how large it is. The kitchen also has refrigerated rooms for fruits, vegetables and tree leaves.
Although the Disney has always had animals at its 11-acre zoological park, Discovery Island, the company has never had to feed and maintain animals in such a large numbers.
Next to sex, the most enjoyable part of these animals' lives in captivity is food, according to the creatures' keepers. It not only nourishes them but also provides some needed entertainment to pass the time. As a result, keepers have made their mealtimes playful by sprinkling popcorn, corn flakes, peanuts and cooked pasta in bedding and other areas that require a search.
The food is prepared in an airy, clean kitchen. One large steel counter is used in preparing meals of carnivores, who make up about 10 percent of the park's animals. The other steel counter is used for the herbivores, who constitute 60 percent of the inhabitants, and omnivores, the remaining 30 percent of the animals.
The most complicated diet for gorillas takes an hour to prepare. The park's 10 gorillas get 15 pounds of fiber-enriched biscuits, five pounds of mixed vegetables and leaves from bamboo, banana, hibiscus and mulberry trees grown on Disney property.
The animals haven't taken to some of the park's innovations. The giraffes didn't like Lazy Susans on the top of trees that were to be used to rotate water and leaves. They are instead munching on real trees.
The biggest eaters, far and away, are the elephants.
1. The park's seven elephants eat a total of 1,000 pounds of freshly-cut grass each day.
2. Vendors in the Orlando area have planted 50 acres of grass just for the elephants.
3. The 14,000-pound animals also need 10 pounds of an alfafa-based pellets and 70 pounds of hay each day.
4. Smitten with the perpetual munchies, the elephants often resort to snacking off trees and grass on the savannah. In the wild, the animals would eat up to 17 hours a day.
5. All of the Disney 3D Adventure Shows, such as Muppet Vision 4D, and Honey I Shrunk the Audience, It's Tough To Be A Bug, as well as the since past show Magic Journeys all use the same principle of presentation. Unlike normal 3D show (red/blue lenses) these film use a process of reverse polorization every other frame. The clear glasses are reversed polorized which allow your eyes to detect the difference of angle between the two frames - this method is cheap for filming, and it can be added after filming is done. It also adds a higher degree of control on the 3D effects.
  REPORTED: Kenneth Klingensmith 25 JUN 98
If you look on the new DAK Millennium glass being distributed at McDonalds you will notice that the emblem on the glass is the old DAK emblem. Now the emblem has 3 animals instead of five. The emblem was change in march of 99 because the other two animals on the emblem did not have any areas to represent (land of the animals that were, land of the animals that are, and land of the animals that never were.)
REPORTED: Ryan G. 07 OCT 99

Where to next?

Go on to the Fun Facts of the Oasis,
Go back to the Hidden Mickeys of Walt Disney World,
Go back to the Spacecoast Hidden Mickeys Home Page, Submit a new or confirm an existing Hidden Mickey in the Animal Kingdom,
or just send me EMail.