Disney's Animal Kingdom
theme park at Walt Disney World / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Disney's Animal Kingdom is a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, United States. It was the fourth park built there, and it opened on April 22, 1998. It is the largest Disney theme park in the world, covering more than 500 acres (202 ha). It is also the first Disney theme park to be themed around animal conservation, a philosophy once pioneered by Walt Disney himself.[2] Disney's Animal Kingdom is accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, meaning they have met or exceeded the standards in Education, Conservation and Research.[3]
Disney's Animal Kingdom | |
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Location | Lake Buena Vista, Florida, U.S.A. |
Coordinates | 28°21′29″N 81°35′24″W |
Website | Disney's Animal Kingdom homepage |
Owner | The Walt Disney Company |
Operated By | Walt Disney Parks and Resorts |
Opened | April 22, 1998[1] |
Soon after the park opened, Disney advertised the park using the fictional word "nahtazu".[4] It is pronounced "not a zoo". It was meant to state that the park is more than just a city zoo. Disney stopped using the word in January 2006.
The symbol of Disney's Animal Kingdom is The Tree of Life, a sculpted 14-story (145-foot-tall [44 m]), 50-foot-wide (15 m) tree. The tree is man-made. The leaves are made out of resin. Tourists can walk around the whole park to see all 325 animals carved in the bark of the tree.[5]
In 2009, the park had around 9.59 million guests, ranking it the fifth-most visited amusement park in the United States and eighth-most visited in the world.[6]