As you get ready to enjoy some pumpkin pie tomorrow on Thanksgiving, take a look at some of Disney’s Animal Kingdom residents enjoying some quality enrichment time with pumpkins of their own. Enrichment like this is fun and stimulating for the animals and an important… Read More »Disney’s Animal Kingdom animals play with pumpkins!
When you stay at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge you are able to get right up close with animals on the savannahs, that’s fun for the guest, but how does Disney keep the animals active? One of the methods is to do what’s called enrichment. Food,… Read More »Wildlife Wednesday: Animal Enrichment at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
SeaWorld Orlando took, perhaps, a bit longer than they should have, but they finally have issued what I consider a very effective response to the people and forces behind the film ‘Blackfish.’ I guess they couldn’t hold off any longer after CNN’s airing of the… Read More »SeaWorld Response to Blackfish
A few years ago SeaWorld Parks and Entertainment gained its freedom from the adult-beverage company formerly owned by the Busch family and started off on its path to independent corporatehood. It had a choice to make about a few issues that were central to the parks brand. The beer factory past was easily disposed with, but the environmental stewardship was always integral to SeaWorld’s existence. AB had been using it largely as corporate goodwill, not that there’s anything wrong with that; but the new company would have to make conservation central to its existence if it wanted to claim a unique brand that had a chance of success in an already crowded theme park and entertainment industry.
For the most part, SeaWorld has done a good job promoting its conservation work, but I think it could do better. For instance, did you know that right now, among the dozens of animals it has in special care is a Florida sandhill crane. You see these everywhere all over the area, but some idiot decided to use one for target practice. So SeaWorld sent out its rescue crew to Pine Lakes, FL, and then transported to the park for further care and rehabilitation.Read More »SeaWorld Orlando Now Caring for Wounded Florida Sandhill Crane
If you were waltzing through Rafiki’s Planet watch over the winter holidays, you may have seen on of Disney’s animal rescue programs in action. Disney’s animal program helped to care for eight Kemp’s Ridley sea turtles that were suffering from hypothermia after a recent cold… Read More »Disney’s Animal Program Works to Aid Sea Turtles
When Walt Disney first opened Disneyland, they trained the horses to prepare for huge crowds by having them walk in a tent with loud noises blaring at them through speakers. The horses currently housed at Circle D Corral still go through a process to introduce them to being on-stage, but the blaring speakers are long gone.
There are four horse-drawn streetcars on Disneyland’s Main Street. Each is a reproduction of 19th century streetcars that were used in major cities such as Chicago, Boston, Philadelphia or New York.
The horses used to pull the streetcars are from the larger breeds like Percheron, Belgian, Clydesdale, or a cross between Shire and Percheron. Each horse gets a minimum of 30 hours of training before going “On Stage.” Their work days are four hours long and they get a two-day weekend just like you and me.
Below the cut is a second video with a closer look at the Circle D Corral
In a move they telegraphed widely last week, SeaWorld has returned its trainers to the water with Killer Whales. SeaWorld says it is taking the re-acclimation process slowly, but having trainers interact with the killer whales in the water is an important part of their… Read More »SeaWorld Returns Trainers to Water with Killer Whales, but only Off-Stage
To my eye the Okapi looks like a composite of a giraffe, horse, and zebra. Sort of a living mythological creature. But no matter what you call it, a baby animal is almost always cute. The latest baby to hit the trails at Walt Disney… Read More »Okapi Calf Hits the Savannah at Kidani Village