Kilimanjaro Safaris

Story

The current story is a short photo safari aboard a safari vehicle through the Harambe Wildlife Reserve in Harambe, East Africa. It is 800 square miles (2,100 km²) of natural terrain, including Ituri forest, wetlands of the Safi River valley, and the open bush country of the Serengeti Savanna. African animals on view include real live elephants, giraffes, antelopes, gazelles, crocodiles, monkeys, hippopotamuses, lions, cheetahs, hyenas, african wild dogs, warthogs, ostriches, rhinoceroses, ducks, storks, pelicans, flamingos, wildebeests, okapis and zebras. The game driver points out animals and provides entertainment. The zebras were removed four months after their arrival due to "acclimation" issues. Some reports claim that the zebras were fighting each other, biting at vehicles or each other, standing in the road, or just causing trouble. They were quickly replaced with addax. Recently, the zebras have been reinstated, and can be viewed during the course of the safari.

African animals

History

Long before the safari or even Walt Disney World opened, Walt Disney wanted to use real African animals for the river attraction Jungle Cruise at Disneyland. However, for several reasons, Audio-Animatronics replicas were placed instead.

The ride originally included a scripted portion where the safari truck - callsign "Simba-1" - would be contacted by a habitat warden and a scientist to hunt down poachers that had captured a mother elephant and her child - Big Red and Little Red, respectively. The poachers would have captured at gunpoint by another cast member, a warden. This element of the attraction was eventually eliminated and replaced with scaring off the poachers after a pursuit.

During Cast Previews of Disney's Animal Kingdom, there was a "Dark Ending" in which the safari vehicle encountered the slaughtered corpse of Big Red. This scene proved too shocking for families and children, and thus was eventually changed to give the attraction a happier ending.

Kilimanjaro Safaris typically operates until sundown. However, during the holiday season of 1998, the safaris were continued at night and dubbed Kilimanjaro Night Safaris. Though many animals were asleep, or unable to be seen at night, the attraction had a completely different script and storyline. This "new" attraction featured additional animal sounds, reflectors hidden in the foliage to resemble animals' eyes, and an actual African dance troup, who performed around a bonfire in the area normally occupied by the attraction's elephants. Kilimanjaro Night Safaris only ran during that initial holiday season. After this time, it was deemed that the additional costs, plus the fact that animal visibility was poor (eliciting many guest complaints), made Night Safaris unfeasible to continue regularly.

In 2004, much of the savanna's drainage system had to be replaced. The attraction remained open during the rehab, with green tarps covering the construction sites to keep the animals out.

In 2007-9, the trucks were extended with an extra row of seating, allowing for more capacity. Also, the safari script/story, along with the Wilson/Jobson story has significantly changed. There is less of a story about "Little Red", and more about the animals in the reserve and the need to find a lost elephant at the end. This led to a somewhat confused plot in which guests are searching for a lost "mother elephant" and eventually find her baby which, according to the story, had already been safe the whole time.

In July 2010 it was announced that guests will soon be able to go on "guided treks" around the savanna. This will include areas that are not part of the regular ride experience.

On February 10, 2012 it was announced that the "Little Red" portion of the ride would be replaced with a zebra exhibit. It opened in the fall of 2012.

Incidents

Construction

Facts