Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney began planning a new park shortly after the opening of Disney-MGM Studios in 1989.[13] Animal Kingdom was the brainchild of Imagineer Joe Rohde, who had previously designed the Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island.[14] When presenting the idea of the new animal-themed park, Rohde brought a 400-pound Bengal tiger into the meeting with Disney CEO Michael Eisner.[15] Originally slated as Disney's "Wild Animal Kingdom," Disney announced plans for the construction of the park in 1995 at an estimated cost of $600-$800 million. To design the theme park, Disney Imagineers traveled to Africa and Asia to study the landscapes and wildlife.

In July 1996, construction was underway on the animal holding facilities, the installation of trees, shrubs, and grasses to shape the park's African Savanna-inspired landscape.[16] Disney Imagineers collected seeds from 37 countries to be used for the plants and grasses in the park.[17] The landscaping efforts included spreading four million cubic yards of dirt, planting 40,000 mature trees (a mix of real Savanna species and artificial Baobab trees[18]), constructing 60 miles of underground utilities, and construction of various waterways, and structures built by over 2,600 construction workers.[15] Many buildings contained thatched roofs assembled by Zulu workers from South Africa.[18] About 1,500 hand-painted wooden horses were crafted in Bali under Disney supervision.[15] Parts of the park were designed to have an aged appearance, with artificial potholes in the safari roads and boats peppered with dents and rust.[15]

Most of the park's animals were acquired in 1997 during the fall; they were held at a rented holding facility in northern Florida for quarantine and observation.[16] Disney hired staff from 69 zoos around the United States to care for the animals.[13]

The park opened to the public on April 22, 1998. Several marketing events surrounded the day. ABC aired a two-hour prime time special about the making of Animal Kingdom, as part of its The Wonderful World of Disney anthology series.[15] Eisner and Disney Vice Chairman Roy Disney hosted an opening day party for 14,000 corporate partners, travel agents, and media figures, which included celebrities such as Michael J. Fox, Drew Carey, Stevie Wonder, David Copperfield, and Jane Goodall.[19] Broadcasts of Good Morning America, Today and Live with Regis and Kathie Lee aired live from the park on April 22.[19] ABC also filmed an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch at Animal Kingdom before the opening of the park; the episode, named "Disneyworld", aired two days after the park's opening.[20]

In 2011, Disney announced a major expansion to the park, Pandora - The World of Avatar, a joint venture with director James Cameron and his production company, Lightstorm Entertainment, with the intention of transforming Animal Kingdom into a full-day operation with added attraction capacity and nighttime experiences.[21] Construction on the area began on January 10, 2014,[22] and the area opened to the public on May 27, 2017.[23]

The park was closed from March 16 to July 11, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Florida.[24][25]

On September 9, 2023 at Destination D23, it was announced that DinoLand USA will be closing permanently at a later date for retheming that section of Animal Kingdom. [26]

The Oasis is the park's logistic equivalent to Main Street U.S.A. and provides the transition from the park's entrance to the world of animals. The main paths feature animal exhibits and dense vegetation and trees lead deeper into the park and then onto Discovery Island. Between the parking lot and the Oasis sits a Rainforest Cafe, which can be entered from both inside and outside the ticketed area.[28]

Discovery Island is located at the center of the park and is an island within the park's Discovery River waterway. It serves as the "central hub" connecting the other sections of the park by bridges, with the exception of Rafiki's Planet Watch. It was originally called Safari Village, as Discovery Island was the name for the small zoological park located in Walt Disney World's Bay Lake but was renamed after that area, which closed in 1999.

The Tree of Life, the park's sculpted, man-made baobab tree, is located in this section and is surrounded by trails and animal enclosures. Inside the Tree of Life theater is It's Tough to Be a Bug!, a 4D film inspired by the 1998 Disney·Pixar animated film, A Bug's Life. The park's largest gift shops and two of its major restaurants are on Discovery Island.[29]

Pandora – The World of Avatar is themed to the fictional habitable exomoon, Pandora, from James Cameron's Avatar and devoted to the many extraterrestrial fauna and flora that inhabit it. The land's marquee attraction is Avatar Flight of Passage, a 3D flying thrill simulator that allows guests to fly on a banshee across the Pandoran landscape.[30] Another attraction, the Na'vi River Journey, places guests aboard a boat dark ride through Pandora's bioluminescent rainforests.[31][32] The area opened on May 27, 2017.[33][34]

An actress performing in the Festival of the Lion King

Africa is one of the original areas of the park. Set in the fictional east African port village of Harambe, this area contains several animal exhibits. Some snippets from Africa that were duplicated by the Disney Imagineers included a fortress that was found in Zanzibar, and a water-stained, crumbling old building that was found in Kenya. Harambe includes a "hotel”, restaurants, an outdoor bar with live entertainment, and different marketplaces.

Sign for the fictional African port of Harambe in Disney World

The village is the namesake of the Harambe Wildlife Preserve, the fictional home of the area's main attraction, Kilimanjaro Safaris. Guests climb aboard an open-sided safari vehicle for an expedition to see African species in several large field enclosures, replicating the African savannas, rivers and rocky hills. The safari features the okapi, greater kudu, saddle-billed stork, bongo, black and white rhinoceros, hippopotamus, pink-backed pelican, Nile crocodile, Masai giraffe, blue wildebeest, springbok, Ankole cattle, common eland, sable antelope, and African bush elephant.

On the adjacent Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail, visitors trek into the forest to see animals such as the Western lowland gorilla, black-and-white colobus monkey, okapi, gerenuk, yellow-backed duiker, pygmy hippopotamus, Grévy's zebra, South African meerkat, Kenyan sand boa, kori bustard, naked mole-rat, tarantulas, and, as well as an aviary.[35] On the western side of the Africa area is the Harambe Theater, which is home to the Festival of the Lion King, a live stage show based on Disney's 1994 animated feature film, The Lion King.

Rafiki's Planet Watch is the only section of the park not connected to Discovery Island; it connects only to Africa. Guests board the 3 ft (914 mm) narrow-gauge Wildlife Express Train for the short trip to and from the area, which consists of three sub-areas.

Guests first encounter Habitat Habit!, where there are cotton-top tamarins.

Conservation Station showcases the various conservation efforts supported by the Walt Disney Company. It also gives a behind-the-scenes glimpse into Disney's Animal Kingdom's animal care facilities, including a veterinary examination room complete with a two-way communications system so the veterinary staff can answer guest questions.

Outside, Affection Section is a petting zoo featuring goats, sheep, cattle, domestic pigs, donkeys, and alpacas.

The area also includes The Animation Experience at Conservation Station.[36][37]

Entrance sign

Komodo dragon in Asia

Asia, the first expansion area added to Disney's Animal Kingdom, opened in 1999. This area is set in the fictional kingdom of ‘Anandapur’, which means "place of many delights" in Sanskrit. Anandapur evokes the traits of Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, and Thailand. According to Disney history, Anandapur was established as a royal hunting preserve in 1544. Asia contains both the riverside village of Anandapur and Serka Zong, which is set in the foothills of the Himalayas.

The visual focal point of Asia is Expedition Everest, a steel roller coaster ride. Nearby is Kali River Rapids, a river rapids ride. The Maharajah Jungle Trek leads guests through the forests and ruins outside the village, which are home to species such as the Javan banteng, bar-headed goose, Sumatran tiger, Indian blackbuck, Eld's deer, white-handed gibbon, Indian flying fox, Komodo dragon and over 50 bird species.[38] Feathered Friends in Flight is a live bird show featuring birds such as the black crowned crane and bald eagle.

DinoLand U.S.A. is themed around dinosaurs and other extinct prehistoric life. The area is anchored by the Dino Institute, a fictitious palaeontological facility which is home to Dinosaur, a dark thrill ride loosely inspired by Disney's 2000 animated feature film of the same name, featuring a trip through time to the Late Cretaceous. Just outside the institute is "Dino-Sue", a casting of a Tyrannosaurus rex fossil that is the most complete yet found. At the nearby Boneyard, there is a playground area with a Columbian mammoth fossil and a cast skeleton of a Brachiosaurus.

Adjacent to the Institute and its surrounding facilities is Chester and Hester's Dino-Rama, which recalls the many roadside attractions that were once scattered throughout the United States. The area features the TriceraTop Spin aerial carousel ride, carnival games and gift shops. At the eastern edge of DinoLand U.S.A. is the Theater in the Wild, which hosts Finding Nemo: The Big Blue...and Beyond!, a musical stage show based on the story of the 2003 Disney·Pixar animated film Finding Nemo.

Like the other sections of Disney's Animal Kingdom, there are animals on display. The animals, such as the American crocodile, red legged seriemas, Abdim's stork and Asian brown tortoise, have evolutionary links to the age of the dinosaurs. They are animal species that have survived since the dinosaur era and can be found along the Cretaceous Trail along with a collection of Mesozoic plants.

At Destination D23 in 2023, it was announced that the area would be reimagined around the American tropics, with attractions based on Indiana Jones and Encanto.

Camp Minnie-Mickey was themed as a rustic summer camp, built as a placeholder on the location where Beastly Kingdom was intended to be built. The area closed on January 5, 2014, and was replaced by Pandora – The World of Avatar.[39]

When originally conceived, Disney's Animal Kingdom was to focus on three broad classifications of animals: those that exist in today's reality; those that did exist but are now extinct (i.e., dinosaurs); and those that only exist in the realm of fantasy such as unicorns and dragons.[40] The original design for Animal Kingdom included a themed section called Beastly Kingdom, devoted to creatures of legend and mythology. During the final stages of planning of development, Eisner decided that either Beastly Kingdom or DinoLand U.S.A. would be built first because of budget cuts after the failure of Euro Disney (known today as Disneyland Paris) and the higher cost of the upkeep and care of the animals at the park.[41] DinoLand U.S.A. was chosen first mostly because of its lower budget. In 2000, Rohde said: "We had a vision and now it's become a placeholder. We have all kinds of ideas and not all of them fit with the theme of Beastly Kingdom. I'm not even convinced there will be a Beastly Kingdom."[42]

In October 2014, a snake dropped out of a tree and bit a boy, precipitating the death of his great-grandmother who suffered a cardiac arrest as a reaction to the attack. A lawsuit was threatened because of the incident but was never filed. The park confirmed that the snake that bit the boy was a non-venomous indigenous snake and that it did not escape from an enclosure.