The first area of Animal Kingdom I began to work in was Africa along with the village of Harambe. Africa at Disney's Animal Kingdom is a small village that is home base for the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction along with the Pangani Forest Exploration Trail. Cindy was the garden specialist I worked with in this area of the park. She was very knowledgeable of many plants and we worked together on several small projects throughout the area, such as maintaining the randomness of the African village. We wanted to make the landscape feel as if no gardeners were presently even working in the area. Here are some photos of the Harambe village. Its one of my most favorite themed lands at Disney World.
Also located at the village of Harambe is the Kilimanjaro Safari attraction. Grace, Jesse, and I all worked throughout the savannas during the past week. It was an awesome experience to work and understand what goes into creating an artificial landscape at such a vast and grand scale. All animals have different habitats with different design intents which makes for unique maintenance procedures.
The next area of Animal Kingdom I worked in was Asia. Asia includes the village, Kali River Rapids, Expedition Everest, and the Maharajah Jungle Trek. For this area of the park I once again worked with my two other fellow interns Grace and Jesse. Together we worked with Bridgett who was the garden specialist for this area of the park.
Working with Bridgett was one of the most fun and educational experiences of my entire internship thus far. Working in Asia gave me insight into the rare plant life and animals on exhibit. Many of the trees and plants used in Asia are the only species of their kind existing in North America. Also, many trees are so rare that they must be self pollinated and heated in the winter in order to survive. Bridgett taught us the ins and outs of how to maintain the quality of show in Asia and it was fascinating to see and understand the amount of work that it takes to pull off such a wild atmosphere.
We worked in very unique places with Bridgett such as the Tiger exhibit. Exhibits are strictly designed and maintained in certain ways. Precautions are taken every day such as: the removal of any toxic plants, maintaining view sheds for guests, keepers, and animals, and the maintenance of all plant life throughout the exhibits.
Did I mention how creepy it is to walk around this place at 3:00am... dark paths, animal noises, and a light breeze make for an interesting work environment. Did we forget the generator?
One other area we worked in with Bridgett included the Flights of Wonder bird show. The unique landscape must be maintained within certain parameters in order for the show to be pulled off each day. We took many factors into account when assigned this project. Details such as; turf height must be kept at a certain length in order to view birds feet, grasses and shrubs must be kept within certain heights based on location so that all audience members can enjoy a view, no color can be used in this landscape due to birds flying towards bright colored objects, and all edges surrounding the theater must create a visual green enclosure. Here is the Flights of Wonder stage:
Next we worked together with Rob and Karen who are the garden specialist for the main entrance of Animal Kingdom along with the entry sequence into the park called The Oasis, and Discovery Island home of the Tree of Life. We worked on several diverse projects with Rob and Karen such as maintaining the entrance plaza to Animal Kingdom, maintaining many of the Oasis animal exhibits, and working throughout Discovery Island on many projects. Here we are working just under the Tree of Life:
Working along the waterways of Discovery Island:
Throughout our time at Animal Kingdom we also worked with Habitat Crew. This group of people tackles large scale habitat projects that must be completed in a very timely manner. We learned to work with efficiency together as a team in unique, but difficult locations. We completed so much work in such a short time, it was very impressive to me how fast jobs were finished. One of the most unique habitats we worked in was the gorilla exhibit, but no pictures could be taken here. There were also many other unique locations where this was the case also.
Overall working at Animal Kingdom was the absolute most unique job I think I will ever have. The experiences we had here together are once in a lifetime. The workers and gardeners here are amazing and I thank them all for showing and teaching us so much in such a short amount of time. I also thank them for there extreme generosity each day they showed towards us. From long talks about new plant life technology in the animal browse fields to buying us breakfast and lunch and even making us dinner, these workers are some of the most generous I have ever worked with. They love to share their knowledge and experiences to help us better understand the landscapes in which we live and create each day. Animal Kingdom provides a sense of surprise and uniqueness with live animals each and every day along side the elaborate themeing of various lands. The experience of working in such a place will surely help me as a design student in the future with the capability to better understand a living, breathing, and ever changing wild landscape.
Lastly what I enjoyed the most at Animal Kingdom were the BEAUTIFUL sunrises every morning along with the wake up calls of hundreds of animals. One of the most unique experiences ever.
My time at Animal Kingdom is up, but now its time to move down the road to the Coronado Springs Resort and work with more fellow interns. The summer is winding down fast, but the excitement is building as our final projects are soon to be presented to Disney's Horticulture team. My project will be redesigning the entrance to Animal Kingdom. More to come soon!
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