Disney's Animal Kingdom Construction Footage Tree of Life Walt Disney World Resort 50th Anniversary

Disney's Animal Kingdom is a zoological theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Owned and operated by The Walt Disney Company through its Parks, Experiences and Consumer Products division, it is the largest theme park in the world, covering 580 acres (230 ha). The park opened on Earth Day, April 22, 1998, and was the fourth theme park built at the resort. The park is dedicated and themed entirely around the natural environment and animal conservation, a philosophy once pioneered by Walt Disney himself.

Disney's Animal Kingdom is distinguished from the rest of Walt Disney World's theme parks in that it features traditional attractions while also exhibiting hundreds of species of live animals. Due to these sensitive conditions, special designs and provisions were incorporated throughout the park to protect the animals' welfare. The park is located on the western edge of the resort, and is isolated from the resort's other theme parks and properties to minimize external disruptions to the animals; as a result, the park's nighttime show also features no fireworks that would otherwise disturb the animals. The park also uses biodegradable paper straws and prohibits plastic straws, lids, and balloons. Disney's Animal Kingdom is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which indicates they have met or exceeded the standards in education, conservation, and research.

In 2018, Disney's Animal Kingdom hosted 13.750 million guests, ranking it as the third-most-visited theme park in North America and the sixth-most-visited theme park in the world. The park's icon is the Tree of Life, a 145-foot-tall (44 m), 50-foot-wide (15 m) artificial baobab tree. The park is the second-most-visited at Walt Disney World Resort, behind the Magic Kingdom.

Disney began planning a new park shortly after the opening of MGM Studios in 1989. Animal Kingdom was the brainchild of Imagineer Joe Rohde, who had previously designed the Adventurers Club at Pleasure Island. 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. 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.

By July 1996, construction was underway on the animal holding facilities as well as the installation of trees, shrubs, and grasses to shape the park's African Savanna-inspired landscape. Disney Imagineers collected seeds from 37 countries to be used for the plants and grasses in the park. 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), constructing 60 miles of underground utilities, waterways, and structures built by over 2,600 construction workers. Many buildings contained thatched roofs assembled by Zulu workers from South Africa. About 1,500 hand-painted wooden horses were crafted in Bali under Disney supervision. Parts of the park were designed to look "aged", with artificial potholes in the safari roads and boats peppered with dents and rust.

The Tree of Life is a 145-foot (44 m) sculpture of a baobab tree at Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort. It has over 8,000 branches of very different sizes and about 102,000 artificial leaves. It debuted when the attraction opened on April 22, 1998. Inspired by the mythological concept, the Tree of Life features 325 carvings of existing and extinct animal species on its trunk and surrounding roots; after Jane Goodall's visit, her famous subject David Graybeard was carved into the tree. The sculpture took 18 months to create. Animal Kingdom has millions of trees and greens; The Tree of Life is one of the park's few artificial trees.

Engineered from a refitted oil platform and based on the natural forms of baobob trees, the Tree of Life is located on Discovery Island, roughly in the center of the park. The tree features over 100,000 thermoplastic kynar leaves. At the structure's interior base is a 428-seat theater that hosts It's Tough to Be a Bug!, a 3-D film attraction based on the 1998 Disney/Pixar film A Bug's Life. There is also a secret path that park-goers can walk up to take a close look at the sculpture.

For more information visit https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/

Footage Courtesy: Disney Enterprises, Inc.

© 2021 Cow Missing Productions

#DisneyAnimalKingdom
#WaltDisneyWorldResort
#DisneyWorld
#AnimalKingdom
#FloridaVacation
#MickeyMouse
#DisneyParks
#Animals
#ThemeParkHistory
#Zoo
#Disneyland
#ThemePark
#TreeOfLife
#WaltDisneyCompany
#CowMissing
6PY45Q8S5THQZLBP