Safari So Good at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Walkabout boots all laced up? Pith helmet on good and tight? You bet your binoculars there’s adventure ahead!

Kilimanjaro Safaris is where we’ll really get to see the animals — living under trees, wallowing in waterholes and grazing the savannah’s grasses. The safari is the largest attraction in Disney’s Animal Kingdom theme park.

There are wild animals here — the kind you find in Africa. Zebras, lions, giraffes and the rest are all living naturally in the broad grasslands, pools, waterfalls and lush green forests. You won’t see any fences — no visible barriers. The animals are separated in secret ways into agreeable groups for peaceful coexistence so they — and you — live fearlessly.

Secrets the Animals Know
Climb right up there on a 32-passenger, open-sided vehicle — a kind of oversized all-terrain truck with canvas awnings for shade and bench seats high enough to see past the bushes. It has hard rubber tires to take the rocky trails, and a tank-like disposition to plow through the underbrush and ignore rickety bridges, threatening geysers and challenging hippos while submarining its way across a flooded river ford. Up front is our guide and driver.

All along the way, your guide will give advice and information about the journey and the “dangers” we’ll face, and about the even greater dangers threatening the world’s wild animal population. He or she will be in radio contact with a bush pilot and his co-pilot — both of whom are committed to saving the reserve’s native wildlife. They will fly ahead in their spotter plane to make sure we really can find the animals we’re looking for.

Off we go down the dirt trail rutted with the tracks of a thousand dusty lorries and into the African forest. It is a land of bright red earth, towering trees that create a canopy and lush grasses sheltering small groups of forest antelope.

Look Out for Rhinos
Crossing the Bongo Pool, where the animals come to drink, we may spot impressive-looking black rhinos, among Africa’s most fascinating creatures. One rhino might wade in the water 30 feet away as we splash through the shallows. On the right, if we’re lucky, we’ll catch a glimpse of the rare okapi. It’s one of the most beautiful and secretive animals of the African forest.

More hippos are at the base of cascading waterfalls. Falls dropping down the hillside create turbulent pools for crocodiles. Our truck makes its way over a twisted, bumpy wooden bridge directly over the lounging crocs.

Discovering the Savannah
After passing through an area of heavy vegetation, we emerge for a spectacular view of the vast savannah — grassland ranges where no buffalo roam but plenty of other animals do, in families and herds, foraging for food: spectacular spotted giraffes, sable antelope, Thomson’s gazelle and gangling ostriches who can outrace our truck any day of the week.

It’s a land of strange trees that look like acacias and ebony.

Termite mounds up to 20 feet high dot the landscape.

As we move along the bumpy trail out into the flat grasslands, we discover the mandrill baboon family on rocks and in the trees peering inquisitively at our passing truck.

Around another bend, at the elephant range, the herd is moving among the trees, reaching up with their trunks for lower branches.

Searching for Big Red
Back in the area where the earth is sunset red, we begin looking for two of the bush country’s most popular inhabitants — Big Red and her elephant baby Little Red — so named because when they roll in the rust-red dust they take on the color of this soil.

There are other elephants off to the left under the baobab trees as our vehicle plunges right into the waters of an elephant pool for more than 100 feet.

Over on the island, a flock of pink flamingos gracefully makes its way to the water’s edge, slender beaks reaching down in search of baby shrimp and tiny water creatures.

Passing between large kopje rocks up to 12 feet high we discover native “cave” paintings, prehistoric pictures of tribal life, visible after hundreds of years. At nearby pools white rhinos are wallowing in the mud or eyeing us from the tall grass. There are other hoofed animals: the kudu, scimitar-horned oryx and the long-horned eland along with sharp-eyed cheetahs up there among the rocks.

Around another mound of rock kopje lions rest on the rich red rocks. Down below are a half-dozen warthog burrows ranged around the edge of a geothermal field filled with bubbling geysers and mudpots. This is where we get our first startling hint of trouble in the area.

Poachers!

Danger in the Wilds
One of the reserve’s wardens radios us with an alarming message — ivory poachers have wounded Big Red, and Little Red is missing. The bush pilot asks us to help out by forcing the poachers east along the eroded gorge — straight towards the waiting wardens. Glad to help, we begin the chase! There is no sign of Little Red.

From the plane, our flying spotter radios that he sees the poachers ahead. “We’re going after them,” he advises.

A dirty, beat-up vehicle races away through a field of geysers spouting 20 feet into the air. In pursuit, we dodge the spouts as the poachers’ jeep disappears around the bend. We pass their tented camp. Campfires are still smoldering. Elephant tusks are scattered about.

From the pilot comes the message: “The rangers are here and the poachers are in custody.”

As our vehicle continues around a rocky bend, the pilot waves us past a halted jeep. A ranger trains his rifle on two poachers still trapped inside the mud-covered, smashed vehicle. Beside it, in the back of a small flat-bed truck, is a baby elephant still covered with rust-red dust. Little Red is safe and will be returned to his mother.

Detouring around three large waterfalls and across a 100-foot pool, we rejoin the main road and enter the lushest vegetation yet — giant bamboo, palms and big-leaf trees — near the heart of gorilla country where we find the Park Ranger Station.

Our safari is over, but the memories are lasting. And there is much more to see on foot down Pangani Forest Exploration Trail, through the bird-filled jungle and at other discovery experiences in Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Kilimanjaro Safaris features Disney’s FASTPASS — offered at no charge to park guests — designed to reduce waiting times at popular attractions in all four Walt Disney World theme parks.

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Disney’s Animal Kingdom Fun Facts

• In preparation for creating Disney’s Animal Kingdom, a core team of seven Walt Disney Imagineers, led by executive designer Joe Rohde, crisscrossed the globe in search of the essential look of life in the wild, amassing more than 500,000 miles . . . a distance equal to circling the globe 20 times.

• Sixty dump trucks of dirt were delivered to Disney’s Animal Kingdom construction site every day for two years straight, equaling 4.4 million cubic yards of dirt.

• Ten artists and three Imagineers worked full-time for 18 months to create the 325 animal carvings on The Tree of Life. Sculptors had between six and 10 hours to create the finished image before the plaster hardened.

• The Tree of Life is topped with more than 103,000 transparent, five-shades-of-green leaves that actually blow in the wind.

• Some 1,500 2-to-3-foot long fanciful hand-painted wooden folk art animal carvings — a fusion of pre-Columbian, Peruvian, African and Polynesian forms — were crafted on the island of Bali by native craftsmen, and can be seen adorning the architecture of Discovery Island.

• More than 4 million trees, plants, shrubs, ground-covers, vines, epiphytes and grasses from every continent on Earth — except Antarctica — were planted.

• The largest tree replanted in the park is located in Harambe village and tipped the scales at 90 tons . . . that’s equal to the weight of 16 male elephants.

• Planting Kilimanjaro Safaris was a challenge. With a ride-through attraction and live animals roaming across the landscape, planting patterns were based on what designers thought the animals would do, and what the guests will experience. Paul Comstock, principal landscape architect, laid out the plant bed lines on a motorcycle (using spray paint) riding at the same speed as the ride vehicle, “because guests will experience the landscape at that speed,” he said.

• The rutted safari road also is part of the landscape design. Imagineering’s design team matched concrete with the surrounding soil, then rolled tires through it, and tossed stones, dirt and twigs into it to create an appropriately bumpy experience duplicating a remote African road.

• In order to support the incredibly large and sophisticated dinosaur Audio-Animatronics at DINOSAUR in DinoLand U.S.A., their dino-size bases were built clear through the structure down to their own large foundations in the ground.

• There’s one million square feet of rockwork at Disney’s Animal Kingdom . . . that’s twice the volume of rockwork in the Mt. Rushmore sculptures or a volume that could create a monolith 10 feet by 10 feet by two miles high.

• To keep 1,000 animals happy takes about four tons of food a day . . . that’s a four-and-a-half year supply for the average person.

• There are 27 million gallons of water in Discovery River . . . that’s an amount equal to 1,800 average-sized backyard swimming pools.

• There are 2.6 million gallons of water contained in various water features that come in contact with animals. On average, the entire volume of water is treated and filtered five times daily, which means that 15.6 million gallons of water are treated and filtered every day.

• The cycad collection along Cretaceous Trail in DinoLand U.S.A. represents the third largest such collection in North America, including direct descendants of the four botanical epochs of plant evolution dating back hundreds of millions of years, including ferns, mosses, conifers, broadleaf plants and the first flowering plants on earth.

• Like a snapshot from an African safari, towering acacia trees and tall grasses paint a familiar picture of the Serengeti on a vast stretch of rolling landscape, but this is Central Florida, not east Africa, and the acacias are really 30-foot-tall Southern live oaks with a close-cropped crew cut.

• Company founder Walt Disney’s love of animals began when he was four years old and his family moved from his Chicago birthplace to a 45-acre farm in Marceline, Missouri, where he helped take care of farm animals, as well as learned to draw pictures of his animal friends.

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom is home to the largest groups of Nile hippos and African elephants in North America.

• The first birth at Disney’s Animal Kingdom was a kudu, a large African antelope.

• The number of species that have reproduced since the park opened is more than 150.

• Seventeen Micronesian Kingfisher chicks were hatched at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, raising the world population of these birds by 20 percent.

• The arrival of two black rhino calves born at Disney’s Animal Kingdom made them two of only 200 in zoos worldwide.

• Animal Programs veterinarians have successfully performed surgery on a tarantula spider, placed an artificial eye in a fish and removed a golf ball from a hungry snake rescued at a Disney golf course.

• The Animal Programs team performs more than 600 wellness checks per year.

• Lab technicians have analyzed more than 40,000 samples of animal poop since Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened.

• More than 2,000 pounds of vegetation and browse is fed to the animals every day, and several varieties of worms are provided to the animals, including super mealworms, yellow mealworms, red wigglers, night crawlers and wax worms — 40,000 in a week! Dieticians also order 80,000 crickets per month as part of the healthy diet for the animals.

• Disney Animal Kingdom scientists have discovered two new vocalizations never before reported in elephants.

• Since 1995, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has devoted more than $107 million to conservation efforts around the world and has supported more than 550 projects.

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‘Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Expedition’ Parade Fact Sheet

Concept:

With all the sights and sounds of an outrageous island street
party, Disney characters have come to town on expedition with a
wild, whimsical, larger-than-life tribute to their animal friends.

Parade Length:

12 min. (approximately)

Performed:

Daily

Location:

Starts at the Tusker House Gate at Harambe Village. It winds
through Disney’s Animal Kingdom and returns to the Tusker House
Gate.

Design Elements:

The procession consists of individually designed elements that
bring a variety of heights, colors and abstract animal visuals to
create a fun, theatrical showcase for the Disney characters. The
elements include five character-based safari vehicles, four drum
sculptures, three rickshaw taxis, eight animal puppets, 14 Disney
characters, 10 Party Animal stiltwalkers and 12 Party Patrols. The
eight abstract animal puppets were designed by Michael Curry
Designs in Portland, Ore., which created the puppets for Disney’s
“The Lion King” on Broadway.

Music:

The main musical score was written by Disney Show Director Reed
Jones and Music Director Dan Stamper, who was nominated for an Emmy
Award for his work on Super Bowl 2000 in Atlanta. All musical
arrangements were orchestrated by Gordon Goodwin and recorded in
Los Angeles.

Costumes:

“Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Expedition” parade costumes were designed by Matt
Davidson. The prototypes for the puppeteer costumes were crafted in
Africa by native artisans. Parade costumes were created at Walt
Disney World Creative Costuming, Parsons Mears in New York, Costume
Armor in New York and Vegas Costumes in Las Vegas.

Performers:

Features 63 cast members including performers, drivers and
coordinators.

Highlights:

In addition to the myriad of characters participating in
“Mickey’s Jammin’ Jungle Expedition” parade at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, guests
can see Disney characters including Pluto, Baloo, King Louie, Brer
Rabbit, Brer Bear, Timon, Terk and Chip ‘n’ Dale.

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Disney Designs Wild Spaces Where Man Meets Beast, Happily

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Architecture for Disney’s Animal Kingdom is all about creating urban spaces for wild animals, wild spaces for human beings and congenial surroundings for close encounters between man and beast.

Down to the minutest detail, Disney’s Animal Kingdom was carefully planned to evoke a sense of adventure travel to the edge of civilization and into a vast wilderness. Landscaping dominates as a story-telling device.

Here on the southwestern edge of Walt Disney World Resort, Disney Imagineers have created a nature-rich and protective environment for exotic animals. They include everything from Komodo dragons to hippos, lions, crocodiles and gorillas, herds of antelope and rhinos — mingled where feasible, separated by natural-looking or invisible barriers where needed.

Architectural scale is suppressed to allow trees to “overshadow” buildings. Overall building height is limited to 30 feet. Many trees transplanted to the site are over 40 feet tall. Some are man-made. Others are carefully arranged dead trees or reshaped growing trees found on the site. In Africa, for instance, they have been pruned to resemble such African signature trees as the flat-topped acacia or maringa trees with their sausage-like seed pods added.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom principal icon is also a “tree” rising 145 feet over the center of the park. The Tree of Life is not only a spectacular re-creation of nature with flexing branches waving over little meadows and pools populated with animals, but a masterpiece of sculpture. A remarkable 325 animal images large and small are carved into its wide trunk, roots and main branches.

Surrounding The Tree of Life is the unique Discovery Island, a colorful melange of art and architecture casually arranged as a celebration of the animal world. As Joe Rohde, executive designer of the park, describes it, “Discovery Island is like nothing on Earth — a place where the love of animals bursts out in vivid colors across the walls and on rooftops where folk-art carvings and paintings portray every creature in the animal world — real and imagined.”

Architectural critics have praised past Disney parks as examples of well-ordered urban design with a rare ability to attract and entertain millions of visitors in uniquely Disney stories. They do it with attention to every detail.

Walt Disney Imagineering designers, architects and engineers use highly detailed “scenery” as an essential part of Disney story-telling technique, along with vehicles, people — cast and guests — which give movement to the scenes. Color, shape, scale, costumes, illusions, authentic decor and in some cases inanimate objects “brought to life” through the Disney-developed system of Audio-Animatronics — all are vital to the adventures of Disney parks.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom, however, carries this story-telling within themed theatrical settings to a new high, creating a whole new entertainment park by adding live and imagined animals. Unlike Disney’s other parks where designers sought “cultural” icons like the Eiffel Tower, China’s Temple of Heaven or a European royal castle to help visitors recognize their surroundings, Disney’s Animal Kingdom architects avoided “cultural masterpieces.”

As Rohde explains, “We sought less extravagant forms of architecture to keep human profile low and deliver a thematic message of humility in the face of nature’s wonders.”

Major “lands,” in addition to Discovery Island and Discovery River which surrounds it, include Africa, DinoLand U.S.A., Camp Minnie-Mickey and Asia.

Guests see animals as part of adventure stories. In Africa, for instance, they board a camouflage-painted truck for an exciting safari, where the tire-marked trail, the recognizably African trees, the rocky ridges and muddy river fords look absolutely real.

Disney’s Africa covers 110 acres but seems like a thousand. Guests walk over a bridge across Discovery River and down the bustling main street of Harambe on the way to the safari departure point under a 40-foot baobab tree. Here is a “real” East African port town weathered by time but struggling with the challenges of the new millennium.

Along the shore are the fishing nets and dhows of the seaside inhabitants. The Swahili-inspired architecture features hand-plastered buildings with frequently exposed coral rock substructure, walls weathered by sand and rain storms. Airy arcades provide shelter and atmosphere with eating places and shopping along the way. Corrugated metal and thatched roofs predominate.

While inspired by the town of Lamu in Kenya, Harambe designers chose not to copy a single street or marketplace but to capture the essence of the busy coastal city. They collected native artifacts, distinctive signs and designs right down to the cracks in the sidewalk.

Since you are surrounded by a compressed scene of human activity in Harambe, the contrast is even greater when you move into the animal forests and grasslands ahead. The queue area for Kilimanjaro Safaris is characterized by small pole structures and thatched enclosures which give way to progressively expanding spaces as the safari begins.

You may catch a glimpse of the Wildlife Express steam train puffing its way along the tracks from the vintage Harambe terminal to Rafiki’s Planet Watch. It’s the kind of mud-streaked train you might see in Africa with local passengers riding on the roof with their luggage or hanging from its louvered shutters. The fact that it is a narrow gauge train makes its surroundings appear larger.

For concept architect Tom Sze, the big challenge of Africa was to apply modern materials and techniques which he used in past big-city experience to meet tough building codes, then disguise them to look like crude native construction of a hundred years ago.

Careful “aging” by Disney craftsmen makes new walls look old. And construction workers can be trained (with difficulty at times) to abandon smooth walls and precise edges to produce a crudely-made look. Achieving “the look,” however, takes real artists who oversee the work at every stage.

Buildings are even more primitive-looking in such areas as Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Where steel or concrete supports are needed — for instance in a “timber” dam which provides a glass window for underwater viewing of the hippos — they are covered with rough timbers, burlap or even epoxy coatings carved to look and feel like lodge pole construction. A “leaking” timber wall adjoining adds to the realism.

Architecture is used to replicate nature in other ways. Typical rock outcroppings in the African savannah, waterfalls and rocky grottos, a rushing “Himalayan” mountain stream for the white-water rafting experience in Asia– all were man-made to look like the real thing.

Imagineers created an authentic look throughout the land of Asia with the crumbling ruins of an ancient village, including temples and a maharajah’s palace. The land’s rainforest habitat and striking aged murals further develop the ambiance. Tigers live among the palace ruins, and other Asian creatures, including a Komodo dragon and giant fruit bats, populate the area.

At the Expedition Everest attraction, a village called Serka Zong rises from the landscape to replicate the rustic buildings of Himalayan lands. Stacked stones and rammed-earth blocks drizzled with “slurry,” a plaster-like mud mix, form structures enhanced by ornamental window carvings of animal, floral and other traditional motifs. A three-tiered temple features a crowning finial of hammered copper. Traditional totems and flags decorate the village, which sits at the foot of the 199-foot “snow-covered” mountain.

Designers have reproduced a dig site where children can play beneath giant dinosaur skeletons in DinoLand U.S.A. The Boneyard looks absolutely real with researchers’ tools and memos hung on the walls. Casts were taken from real dinosaur bones found in places like Utah’s Dinosaur National Park, then reproduced in a plastic-cement which looks and feels real.

Nearby is a light-tight building the size of a movie soundstage built for a twisting, high-speed ride through time into the pitch-darkness of a mysterious prehistoric forest where “living dinosaurs” roar and charge in the darkness.

DinoLand U.S.A. is a study in contrast. The dinosaur dig site and playground known as The Boneyard is a jumble of spaces in disarray, while the well-ordered natural beauty of Cretaceous Trail offers a serene home for plants and some animals that are “surviving descendants” of the dinosaur age.

Fueling more fun among the fossils is Chester & Hester’s Dino-Rama! This mini-land within DinoLand U.S.A. is a wacky dig-side attraction with rides, dinosaur-themed games and Chester and Hester’s tacky but popular Emporium of Extinction, always overrun with souvenir hunters.

Inside The Tree of Life in Discovery Island is a 430-seat theater where a 3-D film special-effects experience with computer-controlled creatures celebrates the lives of the animal kingdom’s largest population — bugs.

In animal areas, design plays a vital role. Within guest view, feeding stations were made to look like trees, stumps, reed clumps or rocky pools preserving the look of the wild for both animals and human guests while encouraging herds of antelope, elephants or giraffes to move from one area to another throughout the day. The result is a complete scenario of life in the wild arranged for the well-being of the animals and the amazement of guests passing through or walking along the edge of the forests and grasslands.

Overlooks were built where lions can feel at home. Gorillas at play can come right up to a row of “bamboo” so they can be seen up close but still separated from guests. Hidden moats and escarpments prevent other mingling of non-compatible animal species, but always with a “natural” look.

Disney designers traveled hundreds of thousands of miles to remote areas, wildlife preserves and colorful communities. They’ve collected thousands of sketches, pictures, artifacts and mental images to give realism and authenticity to their story — not content to depend on picture books, motion picture films or periodicals.

The result means real “adventure travel” for millions of Disney’s Animal Kingdom visitors who may never get to Katmandu or Kilimanjaro.

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Meet Disney Characters ‘In the Wild’ at Camp Minnie-Mickey

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Mickey Mouse and his good friend, Minnie, have just settled in for a welcome respite and a cold lemonade. And Donald Duck and Goofy have arrived to enjoy their favorite vacation escape, the Adirondack-style Camp Minnie-Mickey at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

The "land" where Disney guests can meet their favorite characters, Camp Minnie-Mickey, is a child’s paradise of woodland trails and "meet-and-greet" pavilions nestled in a Northeastern forest of cedar and birch trees. It also is home to a popular theater show worth taking a vacation to see: "Festival of the Lion King" based on the classic Disney film.

Disney guests who venture to Camp Minnie-Mickey will discover authentic touches throughout. Benches and other furniture were handcrafted by artisans from the Adirondacks. Each trail that leads to a character meeting spot is themed to set the scene for an exciting character encounter.

As guests cross a wood-hewn bridge from Discovery Island to Camp Minnie-Mickey, they stroll alongside a babbling brook to find life-like images of Mickey, Goofy and Donald Duck at their favorite fishing hole.

From there, they can choose a trail that leads to their favorite characters. Next, it’s showtime.

Broadway-style pageantry, stunning performances and spectacular floats and sets bring "Festival of the Lion King" to life at Lion King Theater, a hexagonal timber structure with the atmosphere of an Adirondack summer theater. Simba and other animal heroes of "The Lion King" star with remarkable singers, dancers and acrobatic performers costumed in African tribal garb or dressed to depict exotic animals from Africa.

Popular songs performed from the film include "The Circle of Life," "Can You Feel the Love Tonight?" and "I Just Can’t Wait to be King." The 28-minute performance is staged several times daily.

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DINOSAUR Brings Prehistoric Thrills to Disney’s Animal Kingdom

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla – Monster dinosaurs ferociously stalk “time-traveling” guests on a prehistoric mission to save the last gentle iguanodon from extinction in DINOSAUR, a heart-pounding, high-speed ride adventure at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Walt Disney World guests in 12-passenger Time Rover vehicles zip back in time 65 million years to careen through a vast primeval forest filled with moving, lifelike dinosaurs as a fiery asteroid threatens to wipe out life on Earth. Along the way, passengers narrowly avoid the wrath of a gigantic swooping pterodactyl, watch a hungry alioramus swallow its giant-lizard dinner and try to evade the nightmarish horned carnotaurus that pursues their lost-in-Time Rover.

Located in the park’s DinoLand U.S.A., DINOSAUR combines innovative ride technology with special effects and Disney Audio-Animatronics to evoke the realism and excitement of an out-of-control journey on the fast track to prehistoric doom. Air and smoke cannons, large strobes and other special effects ratchet up the thrill level as riders blast into the past for the ultimate dinosaur encounter.

The experience begins in the rotunda of The Dino Institute, a research facility built to serve as a discovery center and laboratory dedicated to uncovering the mysteries of the past. Here, guests view an array of artifacts, including fossils from the prehistoric era. A dramatic multi-media show explains that scientists now believe a fiery asteroid six miles across and traveling 60,000 miles per hour slammed into Earth, creating a “nuclear winter” that devastated plant life and, ultimately, wiped out the dinosaurs.

Moving into the institute’s Orientation Room, guests meet Institute Director Dr. Helen Marsh (portrayed by actress Phylicia Rashad) via a “live” video conference. Dr. Marsh explains that the institute has developed the amazing new Time Rover vehicle to transport curious visitors on a tranquil journey back to the Age of the Dinosaurs long before their extinction.

But renegade scientist Dr. Seeker (portrayed by actor Wallace Langham) has a different, more dangerous plan in mind. He plans to send guests on a perilous mission to the end of the Cretaceous period so they can rescue the herbivorous iguanodon just before the fiery asteroid devastates Earth.

After boarding the Time Rover, guests lurch forward into the time tunnel, where their vehicle rocks from side to side as lights flash and smoke thickens. The Time Rover emerges 65 million years earlier in a dark prehistoric forest.

As the vehicle careens through the darkened surroundings, Dr. Seeker relays instructions to his passengers via a “time-linked” radio. Cretaceous creatures honk and shriek from within the forest, and an angry pteradactyl with a wingspan like a bi-plane swoops over the Time Rover. As an approaching asteroid lights the horizon, the vehicle continues its quest to find the threatened iguanodon.

Further accelerating into the darkness, the Rover twists and turns across rocky terrain as a mammoth carnotaurus — a carnivorous, horned dinosaur with teeth larger than steak knives — pursues the vehicle through the primeval terrain. The rover bounces and bumps through the darkness, narrowly escaping the angry dinosaur several times.

As the rover’s power levels begin to fall, the lightning and meteor showers intensify. Suddenly, a massive meteor destroys the rocky trail. In a final, desperate burst of speed, the Time Rover and its passengers find and snag their iguanodon before crashing back through time to The Dino Institute.

About the Ride — Fast Facts:

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Pangani Forest Exploration Trail Offers Intimate Walk With the Animals

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Pangani Forest Exploration Trail at Disney’s Animal Kingdom leads guests down a leafy trail through lush jungle glades into the adventurous heart of Africa for an intimate view of wildlife research with some of the world’s most fascinating animals.

It’s a true walk on the wild side.

From rustic observation stations along the winding trail, the self-guided tour allows close-up study of rare birds, mammals, fish and reptiles and a glimpse of the daily lives of researchers who spend their days in far-off jungle outposts searching for ways to preserve and protect the animals and their environment.

Many of the animals are too small or too shy to be seen intimately from passing safari trucks or long-distance viewing. At Pangani Forest, they are close at hand.

Just inches away, trail travelers see a family of lowland gorillas foraging through the trees and bushes “picnicking” on favorite fruits in a shady grove. Hippos swim right past a thick-glass observation window. Carmine bee-eaters, red-bearded barbets, Brimstone canaries and other rare African birds fly past visitor eyes, almost close enough to touch.

Pangani Forest Exploration Trail begins near the bustling riverfront village of Harambe, typical of East Africa. But civilization falls behind as guests pass between hand-printed sandstone pillars and under a thatched archway.

The moist-earth trail is imprinted with leaves and twigs. Lush vegetation crowds the sides of the path. At the first break in the foliage, striped-rump okapi — small-antelope fifth cousins to the giraffe — poke their long necks into view.

A glass wall holds up riverbank earth exposing a network of underground burrows and tunnels made by naked mole rats — not rats at all but relatives of the common mole with a unique society more like bees or ants where a queen is the center of life. She receives constant attention from her worker-mole-rats who are constantly trying to hide her within the tunnel network.

Within the fresh-air facility, guests find a researchers’ desk, computer, study notes and other evidence of their daily activities. A host stands by to talk with guests about the importance of their studies in global animal conservation.

Exiting the building, explorers enter a unique aviary filled with rare tropical birds free to fly through the green canopy of trees overhead, which appear to be the only separation from the world at large.

In pools below are many rare fish including the most colorful cichlid found only in Lake Tanganyika.

Moving across the aviary through another screen door, strollers pass into another open air shelter with a well-aged dam on the far wall with a large panel of inch-thick glass, holding the mill pond. Water seeps through the cracks in timber walls on each side of the window. The pool is home to a trio of giant hippopotamuses. Viewers see them both above and below water.

The hippos spend most of their time in the water but can relax on nearby boulders, particularly in cooler weather.

Along the path again, visitors come to a large savannah overlook, a circular, thatched roof structure with a grand view of the grasslands where gerenuk, rare members of the antelope family also called giraffe gazelle, stand on their hind legs to eat leaves from the trees.

Immediately in front of the observation platform, at the bottom of a small canyon, are meerkats creeping around grass patches and bushes — one meerkat always stands sentry.

Bending sharp right and following the trail through a leafy canyon, guests come to the gorilla research camp, a tent where scientific tools — binoculars, field notes, detailed records and books — reveal the nature of the work. Hosts are available to answer questions, but all the attention is focused just outside a giant plate glass window where a family of gorillas — several adult females, a silverback (adult) male and their offspring — have a lush green home in the forest.

Going out of the tent and around the corner through a narrow passage between plant-covered rocks, visitors come to a swaying suspension bridge crossing a deep green canyon for still another view of the gorilla family — and in the other direction a group of male gorillas which are part of an unusual study of gorilla social habits.

In zoological parks, older male gorillas are frequently kept separated. They have a tendency to be less inclined to live together as they get older, according to Disney curators. Researchers here have developed a compatible group that has lived together for several years in the most natural of surroundings.

Trail walkers catch a final glimpse of the gorillas through a “bamboo” fence before heading to the end of Pangani Forest Exploration Trail near the Harambe station of the Wildlife Express trains. From there, guests travel to Rafiki’s Planet Watch where many more insights into worldwide animal preservation efforts provide fascinating experiences.

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Historic British Trains Live Again on Wildlife Express

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — For most of Disney’s Animal Kingdom
guests, Wildlife Express to Rafiki’s Planet Watch is a novel way to
travel by rail behind the scenes. It runs from the African village
of Harambe past state-of-the-art animal care facilities to Rafiki’s
Planet Watch, an interactive, fun-filled center of activity
focusing on animals worldwide.

But for railroad buffs, the puffing steam engines and their
open-air carriages provide a nostalgic adventure extending the
legends of British railroading in the mountains and jungles of
far-off colonies.

Engines like these were first produced by British boiler works
150 years ago. For nearly 100 years they were shipped to places
like South Africa, Rhodesia or India carrying European explorers
and the native population to the animal lands, mines and
agricultural areas of the two continents.

The model for the new Disney engines, discovered in the archives
of the Indian Peninsula Railroad, features an unusual Aspinwall
side-tank 2-4-2 design first built in 1898 in England’s Horwich
Locomotive Works. Its passenger carriages are partly enclosed by
waist-high, wood-louvered shutters with carpet bags, boxes, crates
and wicker luggage stacked high on its weathered rooftops –
definitely an “Out of India” theme.

The Express travels a 1.2-mile circle-tour route built in
narrow-gauge (3.3-foot rail width) to fit the scale of its Disney’s
Animal Kingdom surroundings. The smaller scale was used in many
remote areas where narrow-gauge was easier to build along canyon
walls and around horseshoe bends.

Three engines and two sets of cars were built in 1997 only a few
miles from William Shakespeare’s cottage in Stratford-on-Avon by
the model-railroad firm of Severn Lamb, Ltd., at Alchester,
England. The company makes trains, large and small, for parks
throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, including one for
Disneyland Paris. Each five-car train seats 250 passengers on
contoured benches facing sideways.

The stubby-looking locomotives — engine and tender all in one
– look very different from the Magic Kingdom American-style
engines with their bells and low-moaning B&O whistles. Wildlife
Express whistles sound like the scream of a wounded piccolo. You’ll
recognize them right away from a dozen British mystery movies.

The classic depot is patterned after stucco structures with
archways surrounding an open-air waiting area built by the British
in East Africa during the early 1900s and complete with colorful
travel posters on the walls and a corrugated-metal water tank
nearby. Next to formal, wrought-iron railings is a “local addition”
made of thatch-and-pole construction.

The train makes its way down a shallow valley between Africa and
Asia for a behind-the-scenes look at ultra-modern animal care
facilities which provide nighttime shelters for lions, elephants,
warthogs and antelope herds. All of these animals and many more
spend their days in the forests and grasslands of Africa along the
route of Kilimanjaro Safaris.

At Rafiki’s Planet Watch, guests enjoy up-close encounters with
small animals, interactive videos showing animal researchers and
conservation programs around the world, and a complete veterinary
hospital with medical procedures in progress. Television screens
provide intimate views of animals during feeding, health care and
other daily activities within backstage animal care facilities and
at locations in the Africa and Asia animal lands.

Supervising design and construction of the trains for Walt
Disney Imagineering were Joel Fritsche, technical director of
mechanical engineering, and veteran Disney train-maker Bob Harpur,
who came out of retirement to help with the project.

Harpur ran a model train factory before joining Disney in 1966
to help locate and rebuild antique trains from Mexico for Magic
Kingdom and Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground in
Florida.

The Wildlife Express job involved overseeing tracklayers on
site, traveling to England to check on construction of three
engines and 10 carriages, and directing final theming and
“weathering” by Disney experts at the Walt Disney World site.

Although some of the 19th century trains may be still operating
with makeshift repairs and unreliable schedules in isolated areas
of the world, the last of the vintage steam trains in England
retired nearly 50 years ago, relegated to places like the National
Railway Museum in Yorkshire. None will ever again carry as many
passengers as the Wildlife Express will carry at Disney’s Animal
Kingdom.

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Tree of Life Tells Stories in Sculpture at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — It is a tree like no other, rising 14
graceful stories into the sky, its leafy canopy spreading 160 feet
across the landscape. Its upraised branches beckon: Come take a
closer look.

It is impossible to resist a closer look at The Tree of Life,
which stands 145 feet tall at the heart of Discovery Island in
Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the newest theme park at Walt Disney World
Resort. True, the lofty icon is made by humans. But its story is
the awe-inspiring tale of all of Earth’s animals and the
interconnected nature of every living thing.

Carved into the tree’s gnarled roots, mighty trunk and sturdy
branches is a rich tapestry of more than 300 animals — from the
regal lion to the playful dolphin. Its leaves — of many colors
and four shapes and sizes, all attached by hand to more than 8,000
of the tree’s end branches — number more than 103,000. Its trunk
is 50 feet wide and spreads to 170 feet in diameter at its
sprawling root base. Building the tree’s support structure required
an engineering plan similar to those used in building offshore oil
rigs.

And because it wouldn’t be a tree without being able to sway in
the wind, a giant expansion joint encircles the tree at each branch
unit.

“The Tree of Life is a technological marvel, but it’s also a
symbol of the beauty and diversity and the grandeur of our animal
life on Earth,” says Joe Rohde, Walt Disney Imagineering vice
president and executive designer for the park. “It’s a celebration
of our emotions about animals and their habitats.”

Disney’s Animal Kingdom guests first encounter The Tree of Life
after they stroll through The Oasis, a lush garden setting alive
with streams, flowering glades, waterfalls and animals that include
iguanas, sloths, macaws and other fascinating creatures. As they
continue past the animals and walk through a series of grottoes,
guests are treated to their first incredible view of The Tree of
Life.

“We want you to look up at it, to regard it with awe and wonder
and to translate those feelings to the real animal world,” Rohde
says.

Where The Tree of Life’s giant roots twist over and into the
earth, they meld with a quiet landscape of pools, meadows and trees
that serves as the natural habitat for flamingoes, otters, lemurs,
axis deer, cranes, storks, tortoises and even red kangaroo. Guests
can watch from several viewing locations without disturbing the
animals as they go about their lives. Invisible barriers exist
between animals and guests which appear to be part of the natural
terrain.

After guests meander along a pathway through the extensive maze
of roots, they discover entry inside the massive trunk to a
430-seat theater. A humorous special-effects experience introduces
them to the world of some of our planet’s lesser-known wild
creatures — insects — from the bug’s point of view. “It’s Tough
to be a Bug!” spins an amusing yarn using 3-D film,
Audio-Animatronics® figures and other in-theater special
effects.

While following the pathway that leads to the show, guests can
view The Tree of Life from every angle. They see a waterfall
rushing from the tree into one of the feeding pools. They spot a
dinosaur sculpting formed by the “dead” wood around the tree’s
base. They continue to discover sculptings that include an
armadillo, an elephant, a camel, a baboon and hundreds of
others.

“We want our visitors to wander up to the tree, to recognize
animals and seek out others,” says Zsolt Hormay, Tree of Life chief
sculptor and senior production designer. “Some are more
recognizable, some are less so. It’s a constant discovery and
rediscovery.”

The artistry of the tree, from the carvings to every detail of
its composition, required 20 artists led by Hormay, all faced with
the challenge of creating a work of art that was at once both
natural and fantastic.

“That was probably the most difficult part of sculpting the
tree, to create the 325 animal figures that appear to be formed of
bark and wood — finding the balance between the animal forms and
the wood textures was a great challenge,” says Hormay, who hails
from Budapest and whose team included three Native American
artists, plus artists from France, Ireland, Indianapolis and
Central Florida.

In all, it took more than 18 months and a crew of thousands to
complete exterior construction of The Tree of Life.

“This is the most impressive artistic and engineering feat that
we have achieved since the original Sleeping Beauty castle at
Disneyland,” Rohde says.

To maintain fluidity of the tree’s carvings, the trunk portion
was assembled outside the park with 52 rockwork cages from which
the animal sculptures were carved. The trunk then was cut into a
dozen giant segments and flown to a construction site near the
park. There, the segments were joined in pairs. Finally, the
completed six trunk segments were transported by crane to the
tree’s location, where the final pieces of the trunk puzzle were
reunited.

The Tree of Life is located in the heart of Discovery Island,
the island hub from which Disney’s Animal Kingdom guests can
explore further adventures including Kilimanjaro Safaris in Africa, Camp
Minnie-Mickey, DinoLand U.S.A., Asia and a tour of Rafiki’s Planet
Watch.

TREE2/rev:12-11-06:jh

Disney Designers Create Colorful Animal Fashions

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — Disney’s Animal Kingdom costume designers
have created a colorful line of animal-inspired fashions for
the park’s 2,500 cast members to help create an atmosphere of fun
and high adventure in everything from safari wear to color-bright
native dress.

Each of 62 different designs for cast member costumes is all
about animals, but in totally different ways. Some, such as
caregiver attire, are designed to be worn around animals. For
others, the animals are all around the wearer in the form of
colorful printed images — pink elephants, yellow alligators,
vermilion beetles or bright red geese.

They vary from the tailored, hunter’s green denim worn by animal
caregivers and Pangani Forest Exploration Trail guides to authentic
African costumes worn in Harambe, to a wild collection of
bright-colored caftans, tunics and blousing trousers in fashionable
prints covered with animal images. Those are worn in unique and
colorful Discovery Island.

According to Patty Dunne, coordinator of costume design for
Disney’s Animal Kingdom, they could easily create a whole new trend
in fashions which celebrate the world of animals — well beyond
popular trends such as “safari” clothing and leopard-spot
fabric.

All are loose-fitting and made from fabrics that absorb and
evaporate moisture quickly. All are custom-designed by Disney
costumers and custom-made by leading suppliers to meet exacting
needs for theming, comfort and the special requirements of each
cast member role. Costumes are worn by merchandise and operations
hosts, restaurant cast, guides and animal caregivers. Scores of
designs are worn by performers on stage and in street
performances.

Each area of the park is distinguished by a completely different
set of costumes. In all there are more than 61,000 items of apparel
required. The collection includes:

Nine more costumes have been designed for operational cast
members in Asia. Inspired by native fashions of Bhutan, Nepal and
India, they feature authentic Batik print patterns in subdued earth
tones with typical Nepalese-style tunics and tight-leg, draped
pants familiar to “The King and I” fans.

Twenty percent of the cast costumes are made of a natural,
environmentally favorable fiber called lyocell, designed to look
right and provide comfort and durability in a hot climate. This is
the first time the new fabric has been used for this kind of
costume or uniform. It is made from wood pulp harvested from trees
grown specifically for fabrics and has the natural absorbency of
cotton with the strength and versatility of a synthetic fiber.

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"It’s Tough to be a Bug!" Even at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — They outnumber humans 200 million to one. They’ve lived on Earth more than 300 million years. They comprise 80 percent of the animal kingdom, so you’d think the numbers would count for something.

Not so, says the army of insects that spins the yarn “It’s Tough to be a Bug!” inside the 430-seat Tree of Life theater at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The stinging truth: Bugs get no respect. The inside buzz: You’ll never look at insects the same way after hearing their tale.

“It’s Tough to be a Bug!” comes to startling life through 3-D animation, special effects and Audio-Animatronics characters. Finding The Tree of Life theater is part of the adventure.

After wending their way along the lushly planted paths surrounding the park’s majestic icon, Disney guests pass through an entrance into the tree’s massive trunk. Once inside, they circumvent the tree’s gnarled roots while awaiting entry to the theater. Famous cinema posters of the bug world entertain: “A Stinkbug Named Desire,” “Web Side Story,” “Beauty and the Bee” and “My Fair Lady Bug.”

Opera glasses aren’t required, but guests do receive a pair of bug glasses for a better look at the world “as a bug sees it.”

Moving inside the theater, guests get comfortable on custom log seating while admiring the theater’s tangled-root architecture and classic vine-draped ceiling. The “orchestra” is tuning up with a cacophony of insect sounds while a familiar buzzing sound emanates from inside the “wasp nest projection booth.”

As the house lights come on, an announcer reminds the audience to refrain from buzzing, chirping and stinging throughout the presentation. Oh, and by the way, no pollinating, either!

The spotlight finds the show’s “master of ceremonies,” Flik from the Disney film “A Bug’s Life,” who urges guests to put on their special “bug-eyes,” then dubs all audience members “honorary bugs.”

With a cast of millions of the most adaptable creatures on Earth, the show begins. Butterflies, bees and dragonflies flutter into position. A tarantula threatens. Our friend, the ant, explains:

“Take it from me, Flik, it’s tough to be a bug. That’s why we’ve developed some amazing survival techniques. For instance, deep in the jungles of South America, there’s a bug — well, technically he’s an arachnid, you see . . .”

Assisted by a pair of acorn weevils brandishing a sling shot, Chili the tarantula demonstrates his talent for throwing poison quills with deadly accuracy at a series of airborne acorns. Guests duck, jump and squeal as they feel the “whoosh” of the flying quills. Soon, the acorn antics spin out of control and Chili chases a wise-guy weevil into the wings.

Next, an acid-spraying soldier termite, known as the “termite-ator,” defends his mound by spraying intruders. Says Flik, “he’s buff, he’s ready and he’s . . . Whoa! and he is ruining our set!” The audience shrieks in disbelief as they, too, are hit with the “lethal” spray.

The lights, camera, action don’t stop here. The stinkbug soloist, Claire DeRoom, astonishes the audience with a marvelously malodorous performance. Her star turn, however, is soon overshadowed by Hopper, the villainous grasshopper from “A Bug’s Life.”

What bugs him most: humans’ insect intolerance. His mission: to wipe out the entire audience of honorary bugs. A swarm of wasps flies in with a “Knock ‘Em Dead” bug extermination company brochure and an old black-and-white sci-fi montage of humans trying to fight off giant bugs.

“You guys only see us as monsters!” he asserts from his perch above the audience.
” . . . Maybe it’s time you ‘honorary bugs’ got a taste of your own medicine!”

Soon, the audience faces a plethora of pesky perils: the sweeping swat of a giant flyswatter, the blinding fog of a giant can of “Bug Doom” spray and the prickly threat of a hornet squadron. Guests have little time to contemplate the stinging possibilities before the attack is launched.

The insect infantry is gleeful, shouting: “It’s a hit! Yahoo!” The audience barely recovers before a platoon of rappelling spiders descends above them.

Their fearless leader declares, “Bug bombs, zappers, sticky little motels . . . nothing can stop us . . .”

Well, almost nothing.

The ending is a surprise, of course, and the orchestra never misses a beat as Flik leads the bug cast in the grand, Busby Berkely-style finale.

As the butterfly curtain closes, an announcer reminds the audience that “. . . honorary bugs remain seated while all the lice, bed bugs, maggots and cockroaches exit first.”

It’s enough to guarantee you’ll never feel the same way about bugs again.

BUGS2/rev:6-6-08:lc