The series of Development and Culture posted by Clare Herbert some time ago on the platform, inspired and reminded me of another link to development: entertainment. Clare already wrote about movies and books on Africa. I will thus focus on a theme park that portrays a bucolic image of Africa: Disney’s Animal Kingdom Park located in Orlando, Florida, USA. The park is divided into seven different sections, one of which is Africa.
I spent two summers in a row working in this Disney Theme Park as part of a summer student programme. Sometimes, before or after my work shift, I would go to “Africa” to enjoy myself.
Disney Animal Kingdom is one huge and fun zoo. According to official information provided by the Disney Company, the park is home to more than 1,700 animals from 250 different species, making Animal Kingdom the largest animal-themed park in the world. Children can see the animals in an environment that re-creates, as much as possible, the natural habitat of those animals. They are not in cages or behind bars, like in so many zoos across the world. One of the most beautiful experiences offered by this park, in my opinion, is the attraction called Kilimanjaro Safaris. The visitors are put into a safari-type vehicle, and then taken to see giraffes, lions, antelope, rhinos, zebras, and other animals as they traverse the savana built by Disney, which is located in the heart of Florida. The driver gives information about the animals that can be seen, and even stages a race for poachers. The evils of Africa are not completely forgotten! After the safari, the visitors at Disney’s Animal Kingdom can take a self-guided tour through a tropical forest, and can see wildlife as gorillas, hippos, okapi, naked mole rats, meerkats, and many species of exotic birds. There is a special section in the park dedicated to wildlife conservation. It seems the theme of animal conservation was once pioneered by Walt Disney himself.
During the 12 years since it has been opened, Animal Kingdom became home of four baby African elephants and 11 baby giraffes.
The opening of the park in 1998 drew protests from animal rights groups. According to the New York Times, the United States Department of Agriculture investigated, during the time, possible violations of the Animal Welfare Act after a dozen animals have died. The New York Times also reported that “animal and zoo experts said most of deaths were explainable and not unusual in a large new park”.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom was estimated to have cost about 800 million USD to open. Since 1998, I am sure the Disney Company has recovered its investment, taking into accounts the thousands of people that visit the park annually. Sidney Butler, the former executive director of the American Zoo and Aquarium Association at the time, is reported to have said about the Animal Kingdom upon its opening: “Before you teach conservation you have to fascinate. When you go to this park, you will immediately be fascinated”.
As one that has spent a total of six months working in the park, I fully agree with Sidney Butler. Maybe it would have been a good idea to transform some of the MDGs into topics for park attractions. I am sure they would have at least been memorable just as my Kilimanjaro Safari experience was.
Picture credits: Disney Company
Hi Carmen,
Thanks for posting and giving me a chance to comment on parks like this. And ‘no’, I have never visited any of the Disney parks, so I will be careful how I formulate my comment.
1. The Up-side:
- Great that people who can’t afford to go on safari still have a chance to have a sniff of African Wildlife.
- People (and especially youth) in the States come to the realization that these wonderful animals not only exist in movies but are for real.
- Having fun and raising awareness for conservation at the same time
is never bad.
- Uh….can’t find another positive.
2. The Down-side
- The limited amount on info on the animals. The guide in the video asks: You see how big that giraffe is? With (a lot of) Americans it is always about size, strenght, hight, etc. As long as a figure can be produced they seem to be happy.
- The animals might be roaming free, but the situation is of course not like the African bush. Although I can understand that they don’t want a lion to take down a Wildebeest in front of 5 year old kids!
- And I wonder how much conservation info visitors get. Are they being told about endangered species in Africa? Are visitors made aware about the reasons for poaching? ( http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/when_poaching_wildlife_is_the_only_way). Are they being taught that most commercial hunters come from the States? ( http://development.thinkaboutit.eu/think3/post/shooting_at_what_is_left)
If all that would be made clear, which I doubt they do since it is a ‘feel good’ place, then they are accomplishing something.
In our day and age it is not about creating fascination, it is about telling the truth!
Dear Johan,
I will comment on your down-side points.
- Indeed the information on the animals is limited. The whole safari tour takes about 15-20 minutes, so they do give superficial information. And there are many kids there, so everything is presented in a children-friendly way. I am not sure about your comment regarding the Americans, I tend to think it is a little bit of a stereotyping in there.
- Of course not. They do have their spaces delimited by things not visible to the visitors.
- They are being told about endangered species in Africa and about how many of those animals are left in the whole world (if we are talking about a species that is close to extinction).
- No, they are not made aware that most of the commercial hunters are Americans. The reasons for poaching are not mentioned either.
What truth do you think the park is trying to avoid? Disney is a fascination business but I do think with this park they took a step closer in educating the children that come there about the animals’ natural habitats and about the need to protect those animals.
Carmen,
I had numerous Americans on safari and let me tell you they all want to hear figures. But let me rephrase that sentence: A lot of Americans that come on safari want to hear figures…..etc.
I am happy to hear that they speak about endangered species of Africa, just a pity they hide the hunting fact. Reason for this? Difficult to say, maybe some hunters (who are normally very rich) are shareholders in Disney? Mmm, need to have a closer look at this….! brb.
Last question: do they also tell parents HOW they can protect African animals?
I don’t think they want to hide the hunting fact, they do mention poachers, but yes, the approach is superficial. And that is because the Disney parks are “the happiest place on Earth”.
What they say during the rides are for the ears of both children and parents, but I have the feeling they impact the children more.
http://corporate.disney.go.com/investors/annual_reports/1997/97Annual.pdf On page 5 and 6 of the report you find that Walt Disney also owns ESPN and W.D is quite happy about the buy.
Here are some examples about that wonderful ESPN:
- http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/hunting/news/story?id=4303092
- http://www.brothersoft.com/downloads/espn-game-hunting.html
- http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/tv/news/story?page=g_fea_ESPN2_Radio_Cindy_Garrison_051209
- http://www.notoiletpaper.com/blogs/2/Whaling-Hunting-Sharks-ESPN-amp-Disney.html
- And look at this dumb bimbo working for ESPN on ‘Get Wild’. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJsgKZ_b_Bk&p=E5FF308E88E30785&playnext=1&index=14
So would all the above maybe be the reason for not waking up sleeping dogs while being in Disney’s great Africa?
Dear Johan,
Hunting and hunters are some of the things/people in the world that I dislike the most.
Looking at the legal side of the business, is the hunting they show there illegal? The hunting is still considered a sport in many parts of the world, isn’t it?
@ Carmen,
You are getting off topic. The discussion is not whether hunting is illegal or not (and yes, sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t) but more about the double face of the Walt Disney company. Make money from kids in telling them about the environment and conservation, and make money from a ‘sport-channel’ glorifying hunting. In my opinion not a healthy combination.
Dear Johan, Disney is a company. Like any company in this world, they have a double face. In my blog post I pointed out a good way they make money. I never tried to say they are ethical in all the aspects of their business.
My personal belief is that, just as people, companies are not generally bad or generally good. They all have aspects of their business that one might not get to like. In the same time, either we want to admit or not, big companies do drive our developed economies forward. I never try to demonize them or to make them look like an angel, but I thought this park is a good example on how you can make money teaching people about conservation and environment and make these topics memorable for them, than writing hundreds of pages of policies that are never going to be put into practice anyways.
Hi Carmen,
I fully agree with you that many companies have a double face. And I also fully agree with you that they drive the economy.
My intention is not to take away the pleasure you experienced all those times you went to visit the Africa section. On the contrary…
But, I despise companies that have a double face. And we should not forget that the initial question was: why don’t they mention hunting during the tours through ‘Africa’. That is what I was trying to find out. And all the above links might as well be the answer to that question.
As I said, Johan, they only mention poachers. But they don’t get into details about hunting, who does it, what are the causes of that. I am not able to say if it is connected to Disney connected ESPN and so on, but I do tend to think that this is due to the “happiest place on Earth” philosophy of the Disney parks.
Carmen,
We both have a point I think.
I agree Johan.
Well Florida has got lovely beaches and you can see the real natural life.
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