Have you seen the Tam Tam Drummers at Disney’s Animal Kingdom?

This group of performers adds energy to the Africa section of the park seven days a week through their live show, which features drumming, dancing and singing.

I recently visited the group behind-the-scenes to learn more about their unique show. Check out the video of my visit below. And a warning – there just might be dancing involved!

Check out these posts for more news from Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Wildlife Wednesdays: Saddle-Billed Stork Has First Chick; White-Cheeked Gibbon Expands Family with New Addition at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Today in Disney History: Maharajah Jungle Trek Debuts at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Finish That Disney Parks Sign: Touring the Himalayas at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Tagged: DAK, Video, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

We’ve had some exciting news on the baby front over the past couple of weeks at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, with a first chick for a pair of Saddle-Billed storks, and a new addition to our White-Cheeked Gibbon family.

Not only is the Saddle-Billed Stork chick a first for these parents, but it is a first for Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The pair has been together since 1998, the year Disney’s Animal Kingdom opened, and they have gradually improved the skills needed to be parents, including courtship and nesting.The Saddle-Billed Stork is an exceptionally tall and spectacular-looking stork, with a yellow saddle-shaped shield on its bill that gives the bird its name. Their native habitat is tropical Africa, where they eat mainly fish. Guests can see the nest and chick in the Ituri Forest area of the Kilimanjaro Safaris.

Guests also are enjoying watching the baby White-Cheeked Gibbon in the Asia near the entrance to the Maharajah Jungle Trek, along with the rest of the gibbon family, which includes mom, dad and the baby’s big sister and big brother. You may think you are looking at two different kinds of apes when you see the gold and the black gibbons, but you are actually seeing a female and a male. The babies are born gold to blend in with mom and then change color around one year old. The males stay black, but the females will change back to the gold color when they are sexually mature. We don’t know the sex yet of the baby gibbon, or of the Saddle-Billed Stork chick. White-Cheeked Gibbons can be found in the canopy of the tropical rainforests of Laos, Vietnam and southern China.

Protecting wildlife and nature:

• Many pesticides are harmful to birds and the environment. They can kill beneficial insects as well as harmful ones. We can help by choosing and using these chemicals carefully to reduce their impact on wildlife and nature.
• Gibbons spend their whole lives in the canopy of the forests. You can help their forest homes by purchasing forest-friendly products.

Check out these posts for more news from Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Today in Disney History: Maharajah Jungle Trek Debuts at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Wildlife Wednesdays: Spring Forward to Help Frogs at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Meet Mickey and Minnie at the New Adventurers Outpost in Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Tagged: Conservation, DAK, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

Today in Disney History is a special day for animal lovers. On March 1, 1999, the Maharajah Jungle Trek officially opened at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

This attraction takes guests on a tour through Anandapur Royal Forest, where you can see a variety of exotic animals, including gibbons, black buck, fruit bats, elds deer – and my personal favorite, Asian tigers!

Is this attraction among your favorites? Tell us in the “Comments” section below.


Check out these posts for more news from Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Wildlife Wednesdays: Spring Forward to Help Frogs at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Meet Mickey and Minnie at the New Adventurers Outpost in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Wildlife Wednesdays: Training Equals Great Care for Otters at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (and Some Incredibly Cute Photos)

Tagged: DAK, Gallery, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

This week’s “Finish That Disney Parks Sign” comes from the Asia area of Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

This weathered sign offers tours and expeditions through the Himalayas – but one piece of the sign is blurred out at the very bottom. Do you recall what method of transportation guests will use on this “tour”? Leave it in the “Comments” section below and we’ll update the post later today.
Read the rest of this entry »

Tagged: DAK, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom on March 7, just a few days before we adjust our clocks forward for Daylight Savings Time, we’re “springing forward” to celebrate frogs, toads and other amphibians during one of a year-long series of events that encourage families to connect with nature.

When guests visit Rafiki’s Planet Watch, they will be able to make toad abodes (special homes for frogs and toads) for their backyards, try leaping like a frog, listen to frog calls, examine amphibian adaptations, and meet some cool amphibians and their keepers. Frog fun fact: Frogs provide a free pest-control service – they eat billions of harmful insects annually, including mosquitoes and their larvae.

Guests also can learn about the critically endangered Puerto Rican crested toad, which we are raising at Disney’s Animal Kingdom and releasing in their native habitat to re-populate the species in an area where these toads once thrived but are now considered extinct.

Did you know that, according to some estimates, as many as one-third of the known amphibian species are threatened by extinction because of loss of habitat, climate change, pollution and disease? The good news is that every one of us can help amphibians leap ahead of extinction. Here’s how:

• Invite a bug-zapping amphibian into your backyard by placing an overturned pot (toad abode) as a home
• Use fewer chemical pesticides on your lawn to keep amphibians healthy
• Build a pond, plant native shrubs, and leave leaf litter and logs in your yard to create a habitat for frogs
• Plan a family outing to a local pond to hear different species of frogs sing their love songs to one another
• Find natural alternatives to household chemicals so these toxins don’t end up in amphibian habitats
• Take part in a local pond or stream clean-up to ensure that native amphibians will have a clean home
• Find books on frogs to discover why they sing loudly, hear well and stay up late

Upcoming 2013 events for connecting families with nature (as always, dates subject to change):

At Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• April 22: Party for the Planet for Earth Day
• May 8: International Migratory Bird Day
• May 23: World Turtle Day
• June 5: Pollinator Day
• July 25: Tiger Day
• August 1: Primate Day
• August: Cotton-Top Tamarin Month
• September 5: International Vulture Awareness Day
• September 26: Elephant Day
• October 31: Bat Day
• November 12: Rhino Day

At The Seas with Nemo & Friends at Epcot:

• April 22: Earth Day
• May 18: Endangered Species Day
• May 23: World Turtle Day
• June 8: World Ocean Day
• September 7: International Manatee Day

 
Read on for more updates from Disney’s Animal Kingdom:

• Meet Mickey and Minnie at the New Adventurers Outpost in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Wildlife Wednesdays: Training Equals Great Care for Otters at Disney’s Animal Kingdom (and Some Incredibly Cute Photos)
• Update: Wildlife Wednesdays: Injured Whooping Crane that Received Care at Disney’s Animal Kingdom is Back in the Wild

Tagged: Conservation, DAK, Epcot, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

Are you ready for an adventure?

Starting this spring, Mickey and Minnie Mouse will invite you into their very own exploration headquarters at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. The all-new Adventurers Outpost on Discovery Island is home base for your globetrotting Disney pals, where they meet friends old and new, as they get ready to set off on their next adventure.

Adventurers Outpost is a gathering place, where explorers might come together to share tales from their expeditions around the world. This new, indoor retreat is the perfect spot for meeting Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse at Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

Meanwhile, over at Camp Minnie-Mickey, you’ll still be able to run into other Disney friends and catch a performance of the incomparable Festival of the Lion King!

Tagged: DAK, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort

Disney photographer Gene Duncan stopped by Discovery Island at Disney’s Animal Kingdom a few days ago during one of the training sessions for our Asian small-clawed otters that we do in front of our guests. The result: some incredibly cute photos that we wanted to share with you.

As regular Disney Parks Blog readers know, our animal keepers spend a lot of time training our animals—and it’s lots of fun, but it has a serious side too. We do the training so we can take great care of our animals. For example, by teaching the otters to stand on their hind legs, our keepers can get a good view of the body as part of daily visual checks to see whether the animals appear healthy in between regular veterinary exams. In addition, training can help ensure that each animal gets the right amount of food, as offering food is one of the positive conditioning techniques the team uses to train the animals to voluntarily participate in their own care. Training also is used as enrichment to encourage the animals to exhibit their natural behaviors, which is mentally and physically healthy for them, but it enables guests to see the cool adaptations that help the animals survive as well.

The next time you visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom, be sure to spend some time in Discovery Island with the animals that make their home there. In addition to the otters, you may come upon our animal keepers training animals as varied as lemurs, vultures and cotton-top tamarins. And be on the lookout for our education cast members, who share conservation and animal behavior messages about many of the animals—for example, did you know a flamingo eats with its head upside down?

More about Asian small-clawed otters:

• Asian small-clawed otters are the least aquatic of the otters. They spend most of their time on land, where they find resting spots such as reed nests, rock caves or burrows.
• The otters usually swim by paddling with all four limbs. Only the flat top of the head, nose, ears, eyes and rear part of the body is out of the water. When diving, however, the otter does not use the limbs, but uses powerful lateral wriggling motions and the tail to move through the water—similar to how a fish would swim.
• Asian small-clawed otters are vulnerable due to habitat loss. Many wetlands are in decline because of a lack of water. There are many ways that all of us can help by reducing our water usage at home: plant native plants, don’t water the lawn unless needed, and don’t let the water run while brushing your teeth.

 
Read on for more “Wildlife Wednesdays”:

• Wildlife Wednesdays: Injured Whooping Crane Receives Care at Disney’s Animal Kingdom
• Wildlife Wednesdays: Local Girl Scouts Join Cast Members for Third Annual Walt Disney World Holiday Bird Count – Over 16,000 Birds Counted
• Wildlife Wednesdays: New Antelope Species, the Springbok, on Kilimanjaro Safaris Savanna at Disney’s Animal Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort

Tagged: Conservation, DAK, Gallery, WDW

Filed: Disney's Animal Kingdom, Walt Disney World Resort