Disney's Animal Kingdom celebrates 10 years today

Scott Powers | Sentinel Staff Writer

April 22, 2008

While Mark Stetter's veterinary team examined a sedated lion on an operating-room table, Anne Savage reviewed her mission to Colombia to save the cotton-top tamarin and Matt Hohne lectured about rhinoceros-breeding programs.

Meanwhile, across the fence, hundreds of visitors to Disney's Animal Kingdom lined up to ride the Expedition Everest roller coaster or to watch Finding Nemo -- The Musical featuring Disney- Pixar movie characters.

As Animal Kingdom celebrates its 10th anniversary today, its twin missions of wildlife management and theme-park enjoyment appear to be thriving, even if Disney has not quite managed to wed them yet.

After the investment of tens of millions of dollars in both Expedition Everest and Finding Nemo, attendance at Walt Disney World's fourth theme park has climbed rapidly the past two years, pushing Animal Kingdom close to the 10 million-visitors-a-year mark. At the same time, the theme park's worldwide reputation for wildlife conservation and research has attracted respect and acclaim from such well-known scientists as primatologist Jane Goodall.

Yet the park, founded on Earth Day -- April 22, 1998 -- struggles to find a balance between emphasizing live animals, such as lions and rhinos, which give Animal Kingdom its mission, and fantasy animals, such as the Himalayan yeti or Nemo the animated fish, which sell tickets.

Long-term goal

"In fact, years will go by as we build out toward this master plan in which the park should end up being pretty level, balanced between live animals, imaginary animals, prehistoric animals, fantasy," said the park's chief designer, Joe Rohde, executive designer and senior vice president of Walt Disney Imagineering. "That's our long-term goal for the park -- that we have this very balanced presentation of the entire world of animals as you would expect to receive it from the Disney company."

From the start, Walt Disney Co. has been careful not to play up the zoo angle. Disney wrote fantasy stories about live animals, and designers set out to create fantasy worlds that visitors could enter to see them, so that the attractions felt more like adventures than exhibits. Earlier this decade, Disney ran a national advertising campaign that declared Disney's Animal Kingdom was "NAHTAZU." The park has a zoo, Disney officials said, but that doesn't make it a zoo.

"We wanted to ensure that [what] our guests understood is that this is a theme park," said Valerie Bunting, vice president for Disney's Animal Kingdom "There are great attractions and shows, restaurants. We have the animal component that added to it. And I think we're just trying to make sure that the message got out there that this is a theme park."

David Koenig, author of the unauthorized 2007 history book Realityland: True-Life Adventures at Walt Disney World, said Disney had trouble from the start promoting the zoo angle, anyway.

"Everything at Disney is supposed to be different and better than anything around you," he said. "And everybody's got a zoo."

The park is an accredited zoo -- and is often cited as one of the top zoos in the nation, with involvement in many high-profile international wildlife-conservation movements. It has 1,500 animals, representing more than 300 species, including 35 species listed as threatened or endangered. The park also employs most of Disney World's 550 animal-care specialists, ranging from technicians to Stetter, one of only 100 board-certified zoo-and-wildlife veterinary specialists in the world; Savage, a conservation biologist who serves as a vice president of the International Society of Primatologists; and Hohne, whose titles include special survival-plan coordinator for the North American pygmy hippopotamus.

"We can say with pride that now we really are viewed as a leader in conservation and animal care," said Jackie Ogden, Disney World vice president of animal programs and environmental initiatives.

The zoo portion got off to a rough start.

In the weeks before the theme park's gates opened, 31 animals, including rhinos, hippos and cheetahs, died of various causes. A federal probe cleared Disney of any wrongdoing, but protesters still picketed. Heather Veleanu, managing director of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, said her group remains a critic of Animal Kingdom, mostly concerned about how Disney buys and sells many of its animals.

Entertainment options

The park also opened in 1998 with fewer entertainment options. The Asia area, with its Kali River Rapids ride, was still nearly a year from being ready to operate, and there were few other rides. The park's layout requires lots of walking, and there were not enough cool-down spots.

So Disney quickly added water fountains, misters and shade, and enclosed and air-conditioned a couple of theaters. Asia opened in 1999 with both an animal trail and a thrill ride. Then came the Animal Kingdom Lodge resort hotel and time-share units, the Expedition Everest roller coaster and the big-budget Nemo show.

"Disney is finally coming to terms with what it wants Animal Kingdom to be," Koenig said. "When it first opened, it wasn't quite sure -- is this a classroom education and conservation center, or is this a wild theme park? About five years ago, it finally made up its mind and said, 'All of our parks are now Disney-branded theme parks, and we're going to put as many [Disney] characters and as much fun and adventure [in them] as we can.' "

Scott Powers can be reached at spowers@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5441.