Disney's Animal Kingdom is an animal theme park located at the Walt Disney World Resort. The fourth park built at the resort, it opened on April 22, 1998, and it is the largest single Disney theme park in the world, covering more than 500 acres (2 km²). It is also the first Disney theme park to be themed entirely around animal conservation, a philosophy once pioneered by Walt
Disney himself. Disney's Animal Kingdom is accredited by the Association of Zoos and aquariums, meaning they have met and exceeded the standards in Education, Conservation and Research.
Shortly after the park opened, Disney advertised the park using the fictional word "nahtazu" pronounced "not a zoo," the word emphasized that the park was more than animal displays
found in a typical city zoo. Disney stopped using the phrase in January 2006. In 2009, the park hosted approximately 9.59 million guests, ranking it the fifth-most visited amusement park in the United States and eighth-most visited in the world.
Welcome to a kingdom of animals... real, ancient and imagined: a kingdom ruled by lions, dinosaurs and dragons; a kingdom of balance, harmony and survival; a kingdom we enter to share in the wonder, gaze at the beauty, thrill at the drama, and learn.
—Michael Eisner April 22, 1998
Disney's Animal Kingdom focuses on three broad classifications of animals: those that exist today; those that did exist, but are now extinct (i.e., dinosaurs); and, those that exist in legend and mythology. In the original design for the park, the animals of legend were to have their own section.
As a zoological park, Disney's Animal Kingdom is engaged in research and conservation efforts involving its animal species. Since the park's opening in 1998, the resident elephant herd has produced five calves, with births in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2008 and 2010. In 2008 alone, the park's giraffe herd produced four newborns, raising the total number of giraffe births since
opening to eleven.
In 1999, one of the park's white rhinos gave birth to a female calf named Nande. In 2006, Nande and Hasani, another of the park's rhinos, were transferred to Uganda's Ziwa animal sanctuary, in the first attempt to re-introduce white rhinos to the country.
Due to civil strife, the white rhinoceros had become extinct in the area. In June 2009, Nande gave birth to a male calf, the first such birth in Uganda in over 25 years. In January 2010, the success of the Rhino breeding program was highlighted with the news that eight white rhinos have been born at Animal Kingdom since the parks opening, the newest calf having been born to
another Animal Kingdom born mother.
Even in planning stages, various Florida based animal rights groups and PETA didn't like the idea of Disney creating a theme park where animals were held in captivity. The groups protested, and PETA tried to convince travel agents not to book trips to the park. A few weeks before the park opened, a number of animals died due to accidents. The United States Department of Agriculture viewed most of the cases and found no violations of animal-welfare regulations. On opening day, the Orange County Sheriff's office sent about 150 deputies in fear that there may be a large protest, but only two dozen protesters showed up. The protest lasted two hours, and there were no arrests. One year after the park opened, Animal Rights Foundation of Florida complained that a New Year's Eve fireworks show could upset the animals. A USDA inspector came to the park to find no problems with launching low-noise fireworks half a mile away.
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