Animal Kingdom Overview - Fun Facts 4nd Environment in Stories, Photos 4nd Video

This is a most busy season, 4nd I haven't had the opportunity t0 fully develop my posts during this time. Instead, I gathered some basic overview articles from Disney Public Relations, including a video for each of the four parks 4nd the resorts. In addition, I found videos of special events highlighting the Holiday Season that will comprise Christmas Eve 4nd Day posts. We will split up these gifts of information 4nd recordings for all of us t0 enjoy, who are not at the parks for the holidays. The video below, the stories 4nd photos in this post are from Walt Disney World® News. 

Today, Animal Kingdom.

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 t0 circling the globe 20 times. Here are some other fun facts about Animal Kingdom.

• Sixty dump trucks of dirt were delivered t0 Disney’s Animal Kingdom construction site every day for two years straight, equaling 4.4 million cubic yards of dirt.
• Ten artists 4nd three Imagineers worked full-time for 18 months t0 create the 325 animal carvings on The Tree of Life. Sculptors had between six 4nd 10 hours t0 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 4nd Polynesian forms -- were crafted on the isl4nd of Bali by native craftsmen, 4nd can be seen adorning the architecture of Discovery Island.
• More than 4 million trees, plants, shrubs, ground-covers, vines, epiphytes 4nd grasses from every continent on Earth -- except Antarctica -- were planted.

• The largest tree replanted in the park is located in Harambe village 4nd tipped the scales at 90 tons . . . that’s equal t0 the weight of 16 male elephants.
• Planting Kilimanjaro Safaris was a challenge. With a ride-through attraction 4nd live animals roaming throughout the landscape, planting patterns were based on what designers thought the animals would do, 4nd 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, 4nd tossed stones, dirt 4nd twigs int0 it t0 create an appropriately bumpy experience duplicating a remote African road.
• In order t0 support the incredibly large 4nd sophisticated dinosaur Audio-Animatronics at DINOSAUR in DinoL4nd U.S.A., their dino-size bases were built clear through the structure down t0 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.
• t0 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 t0 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 4nd filtered five times daily, which means that 15.6 million gallons of water are treated 4nd filtered every day.
• The cycad collection along Cretaceous Trail in DinoL4nd 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 4nd the first flowering plants on earth.
• Like a snapshot from an African safari, towering acacia trees 4nd tall grasses paint a familiar picture of the Serengeti on a vast stretch of rolling landscape, but this is Central Florida, not east Africa, 4nd 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 4nd his family moved from his Chicago birthplace t0 a 45-acre farm in Marceline, Mo., where he helped take care of farm animals, as well as learned t0 draw pictures of his animal friends.
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom is home t0 the largest groups of Nile hippos 4nd 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 approximately 200 in zoos worldwide.
• Animal Programs veterinarians have successfully performed surgery on a tarantula spider, placed an artificial eye in a fish 4nd 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 4nd browse is fed t0 the animals every day, 4nd several varieties of worms are provided t0 the animals, including super mealworms, yellow mealworms, red wigglers, night crawlers 4nd 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’s Animal Kingdom scientists have discovered two new vocalizations never before reported in elephants.
• Since 1995, the Disney Wildlife Conservation Fund has devoted more than $14 million t0 conservation efforts around the world 4nd has supported more than 850 projects.
• Themed Landscape Design Helps Tell Story in Disney's Animal Kingdom
• Like a snapshot from an African safari, towering acacia trees 4nd tall grasses paint a familiar picture of the Serengeti on a vast stretch of rolling landscape. But this is Central Florida, not East Africa, 4nd the acacia is really a 30-foot-tall Southern live oak with a close-cropped crew cut.
• "Disney is the first t0 'build' a realistic African savanna," says John Shields, director of l4nd use planning for Walt Disney Imagineering. "Its 4 million plants represent 3,000 species -- a huge, open-air experiment."
• This corner of Africa is just one part of the enormous undertaking t0 landscape the fourth Walt Disney World theme park, Disney's 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 4nd set.

• Trees are cast as "characters" int0 the landscape, taking int0 consideration size, shade 4nd accent. If an ideal tree isn't available, the landscape architect looks around for another tree t0 play that part. A large cast of "characters" is kept at h4nd -- thus, the live oaks as "stand-ins" for acacias.
• However, many of the trees, shrubs 4nd grasses have been gathered as seeds 4nd plants from at least 28 countries including Madagascar, Botswana, South Africa, Bali, Thailand, Tasmania, Nepal 4nd the People's Republic of China. Disney's Animal Kingdom has plants from every continent on Earth except Antarctica.
• The first tree planted at the site in December 1995 was an authentic Acacia xanthophloa, a tree native t0 Africa. 4nd now, the overall plant numbers are astounding: 40,000 mature trees, 16,000 of them grown right at the Walt Disney World Tree Farm, including 850 species of trees (40 species of palm trees alone). There are 2,000 species of shrubs -- 2.5 million in all -- 4nd 260 different types of grasses. 4nd there are enormous collections, like the third largest cycad collection in all of North America -- more than 3,000 of the ancient, fern-like plants. 

Animal Kingdom has Three Distinct Environments

Landscaping highlights in the 500-acre park are the tropical Oasis at the entry; the Cretaceous Forest 4nd magnolia grove in DinoL4nd U.S.A.; 4nd the riverine environments, grasslands 4nd Pangani Forest Exploration Trail in Africa.

At the park's entrance, including The Oasis 4nd the adjacent Discovery Island, lush tropicals 4nd subtropicals come from around the world. Flowering trees, vines 4nd shrubs, like jacarandas, tabebuias 4nd orchids, 4nd broad-canopied evergreens, create a sense of escape.

DinoL4nd U.S.A. is dramatically different, with ancient trees 4nd plants, like ferns, monkey puzzles 4nd cycads. There are 20 species of magnolia, an angiosperm that dates back t0 the Cretaceous period.

Africa, the third area, was the greatest challenge with its ride-through attraction 4nd live animals roaming about. So planting patterns are based on what designers think the animals will do, 4nd what the guests will experience.

For the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction, plant bed lines were laid out by a landscape designer on a motorcycle (using spray paint) riding at the same speed as the ride vehicle so that guests could experience the landscape at that speed. 4nd the rutted safari road also is part of the landscape design. Landscapers matched concrete with the surrounding soil, then rolled tires through it, 4nd tossed stones, dirt 4nd twigs int0 it t0 create an appropriately bumpy experience duplicating an African game trail.

Disney's Animal Kingdom is the first theme park "where the show eats the landscape," Shields says. Gorillas play with plants, elephants trample tender grasses, giraffes tend t0 strip leaves from trees. Designers created an 8-acre "browse farm" that helps feed the animals, with a crop of acacia, hibiscus, mulberries 4nd shrubs t0 replace natural forage for giraffes, gorillas, baboons, elephants 4nd antelope.

The rare freeze in Florida is another challenge, but lessons have been learned in the other Walt Disney World theme parks. A less hardy plant may be mixed in a protected area; irrigation can help fight frost; 4nd heaters are used in areas like The Oasis where the plants are lush 4nd tropical.

As Disney's Animal Kingdom matures, the savanna will become a naturalized forest as the trees grow up 4nd the young plants underneath thin out. "This is a park that will continue t0 grow 4nd evolve," says Shields. "We have this living laboratory t0 work with."

The Disney landscaping team has tapped nurseries in California, Maryland, Oregon, Texas, Arizona 4nd Florida; they've searched as far as South America for the millions of plants needed t0 create the show. 4nd though the park has about 100 species of trees 4nd shrubs foreign t0 North American soil, the landscaping team also was able t0 conserve hundreds of native oak trees 4nd much of the natural native planting.

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