The Zoo Review: Disney's Animal Kingdom - (Part 1) The Oasis and Discovery Island

Viva Gaia!

Last year I had the incredible opportunity to spend my summer working at Disney's Animal Kingdom as part of the Cultural Exchange Program. This is a three-month experience which lets international university students work at the Disney Parks and Hotels at Walt Disney World in Florida. I worked in the two shops on Discovery Island near the entrance to the park - the Discovery Trading Company and Island Mercantile. My shifts normally started at 15:00, so most days I'd visit the park before work. Going to Animal Kingdom five days a week for three months, I think I got to know it pretty well. It also means I've got quite a lot to say, so I've broken my thoughts down into separate articles divided by area. I'll be focusing on the animals in this series of articles, not covering the rides (except Kilimanjaro Safaris). I'll then do another article where I try to more sucinctly cover the whole park and give my final scores and verdict, though I accept I am a bit biased.

This first review will be looking at the entrance to Animal Kingdom, which consists of two areas, The Oasis and Discovery Island. Before we even get to those, however, it's worth noting that the Animal Kingdom parking lot is particularly grim. An endless sea of baking concrete, it seems incongruous with the rest of the park. Apparently, this was deliberate, with the Imagineers (the people who build the Disney parks) wanting to create that contrast. As you head in through the gates, look up and you'll see an elephant, a dinosaur, and a dragon. The dragon is a remnant of Beastly Kingdom, a land which was never built but which would have been home to mythical creatures. 

Once you're through the gates, you'll find yourself in The Oasis. I love this entrance, it acts as a soft opening to the park, a moment of calm away from the normal madness of Disney crowds. I've often heard people describing Animal Kingdom as a half day park, which it might be, if you're just there to run around and get on as many rides as possible. However, the best way to enjoy Animal Kingdom is to take it at a slower pace and stop to explore and absorb all the details. This is especially the case for The Oasis. I was still finding new paths and animal enclosures even after I'd been there for months.

Disney doesn't publish a list of the animals in its parks, so I'm going based on what I can remember from last year, and what other people have said on the internet (though beware, these lists can be pretty hit and miss). The first enclosure you come to is home to wetland birds, with species like ringed teal (Callonetta leucophrys), ruddy duck (Oxyura jamaicensis), white ibis (Eudocimus albus), and African spoonbill (Platalea alba). If you carry on round to the left you'll pass the southern giant anteater (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) enclosure. Anteaters can sleep for up to 15 hours a day, so you'll probably find her asleep in the shade towards the far end of her enclosure, covering her body with her tail. Despite becoming hugely attached to the anteater after seeing her almost every day on my way into work, it was only once I'd returned home that I found out there are two - Callie and Annie. I never saw them together, so I think they must be rotated. As with many of the enclosures at Animal Kingdom, it's really hard to get a sense of the scale of their enclosure, and how much backstage area they have access to, which makes commenting on welfare a little tricky.

If you chose to go right instead, or indeed if you cut back across, then you will come to the babirusa enclosure. I've been spoiled seeing babirusa at Chester Zoo, so they don't always feel as special to me as they really should. It's at this point that I'll also mention the fact that Animal Kingdom is prehaps lacking in the same quantity and quality of educational signage that you get at other zoos. In most of the zoo this is made up for by having cast members (staff) nearby to talk with guests about the animals, but they don't seem to get stationed in The Oasis, which I think is a shame, given the number of people I overheard with no idea what an anteater or babirusa (Babyrousa) was.

The Oasis is also home to a rhinoceros iguana (Cyclura cornuta), who I often saw resting on the rock in the middle of his enclosure. There are also Reeve's muntjac deer (Muntiacus reevesi), though I only saw them on a handfull of occassions. I think I remember seeing a sign for swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor), and they're often included in lists on the internet, but I don't recall ever seeing them, so I'm not entirely convinced they're still there. 

The Oasis is built on a slight upward slope, which is designed to make you slow down and take your time - with the side effect of making the sprint to Pandora to be first in line for Flight of Passage even more of a challenge. It also means that when you reach the end of The Oasis, you can fully absorb your first look at The Tree of Life.

I'm definitely biased because Animal Kingdom was my home park, but the Tree of Life is my favourite park icon, even beating Sleeping Beauty's castle at Disneyland Paris. It's a 145-foot-tall sculpture of a baobab tree, carved with over 300 different animals. I know that 'Its Tough to be a Bug' is pretty low on the list of 'must-ride' Disney attractions, but I recommend putting yourself through it at least once so that you can go through the queue which winds around the Tree of Life. This where you'll find a carving of a chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes). Not originally planned for The Tree of Life, he was added when Jane Goodhall visited Animal Kingdom during its construction, and inquired about whether one was going to be carved. The chimpanzee is the only named carving on the tree, called David Greybeard after one of Dr Goodhall's most famous subjects. It's also worth wandering the pathways around the Tree of Life because they are home to some well-hidden animal enclosures, such as Galapagos giant tortoise (Chelonoidis niger).

The Tree of Life is also centre stage for Winged Encounters. Several times a day, six species of South American macaw (hyacinth, green-winged, blue and gold, scarlet, blue-throated, and military) will fly in front of The Tree of Life. When the birds are in the mood, the show is a really powerful experience, I got choked up the first time I saw it. Quite often, however, the macaws will decide to do their own thing instead, which is also very entertaining. I love that this is a show at Disney where you don't have to queue; you can turn up minutes before and walk straight into a great spot at the base of the tree. I am also attached because I'd often get to watch the final show of the day during my shift. 

One of my favourite positions when working at Discovery Trading Company was the porch. I could stand outside waving a bubble wand in time with the music from the Viva Gaia Street Band, and I'd often be lucky enough to watch the ring-tailed (Lemur catta) and collared lemurs (Eulemur collaris) opposite being fed. Again, Disney are good at tricking the eye, so it's hard to know what space the lemurs had access too, and they often seemed to be off-show so I assume there were areas which the visitors cannot see. There are also Asian forest tortoise (Manouria emys) in this area.

If you follow Island Mercantile to round to the left, then you'll pass the lesser flamingo enclosure and eventually reach Otter Grotto, which is probably the most impressive of the enclosures on Discovery Island. The Asian short clawed otters (Aonyx cinereus) are very much a crowd pleaser, and though there are several viewing windows, it can get pretty crowded, so I never really spent long in this area. Instead I'd continue on to the cotton top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus). I have a huge soft spot for these tamarins, as they had given birth to twins about a week before I arrived in Florida, the first to be born at the park since 2001. It was a privilege to watch the twins grow up during my time there, progressing from clinging tightly to their parents to scampering around their enclosure. The two girls have been named Catalina and Rosa, both inspired by the conservation organisation Proyecto Tití, which works to protect cotton top tamarins in Columbia. The cotton top tamarin enclosure is opposite the Starbucks, called Creature Comforts, and if you buy a flat white, a coffee topped with a creamy white dollop which looks like the crest of hair on a cotton-top, then you'll be donating to the Disney Conservation Fund to help protect cotton top tamarins in the wild. This year the cotton top tamarins have bred again, this time having triplets. If you'd like to learn more about the Disney Conservation Fund, you can follow this link.

That brings us to the end of Part 1 of my Animal Kingdom review series. In my next article, I'll be introducing you to Africa, home to both Killimanjaro Safaris and The Gorilla Falls Exploration Trail.

As we say on Discovery Island - have a wild adventure!

Sources

All Ears (2024) Animal Species by area Animal Kingdom. Available at: https://allears.net/animal-kingdom/animal-species-by-area-animal-kingdom/ (Accessed: 9 July 2024).

The Walt Disney Company (2024) Wildlife at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park. Available at: https://www.disneyworld.co.uk/attractions/animal-kingdom/disney-animals/ (Accessed: 9 July 2024).