Some Creatures in New Disney Park Meet Unhappy Endings

With less than two weeks to go before Disney opens its fourth major theme park here, its publicists are busy describing the $800-million Animal Kingdom as a high-adventure jungle populated with exotic species, long-dead dinosaurs and “warm fuzzy moments” with beloved characters like Mickey and Minnie.

Indeed, the word “zoo” is nowhere to be found in Disney literature, and it took a recent reminder from company CEO Michael Eisner to reemphasize that the sell here is not conservation but fun and entertainment.

But as the April 22 opening nears, it is precisely the park’s zoological nature that is the focus of attention after the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced last week an investigation into the deaths of several animals, including two rhinoceroses, two hippopotamuses, four cheetah cubs that were poisoned and a pair of West African crowned cranes that were run over by a tour bus.

For an entertainment company renowned for its tight control over marketing and visitors, as well as its attention to detail, the negative publicity over the animal deaths has been a rare public relations debacle.

*

“Because it’s Disney, people think animals shouldn’t die,” said Rick Sylvain, a Disney spokesman. “But deaths happen. It saddens us. We welcome the investigation, and then we will move forward.”

Disney officials expressed confidence that the 1,000 exotic animals in the park, ranging from lowland gorillas to several species of endangered birds and reptiles, are well cared for by a zoo staff recruited from the top parks in the world.

Nonetheless, the accidental deaths have provided plenty of fodder for animal rights groups that oppose Animal Kingdom--and all zoos. “It would be a good business decision for them not to take any more animals from breeders to put on display,” said Nanci Alexander, president of the Animal Rights Foundation of Florida, which has run newspaper ads charging Disney with animal cruelty.

The deaths also have caused officials of the Humane Society of the United States, which does not oppose zoos as conservation parks, to wonder about Disney’s focus with Animal Kingdom. “Is it a zoo or a theme park with animals?” asked Richard Farinato, director of captive wildlife protection programs for the society. “If it’s the latter, it’s hard to take them seriously.”

News of the animal deaths also has complicated Disney’s task in marketing a theme park designed to entertain as well as educate about wildlife conservation and prehistoric times.

“They have a classic brand-extension problem,” said Erik Gordon, director of the Center for Retailing Research at the University of Florida. “Disney wants people to pay Disney-like dollars. But it is not quite like other Disney [attractions]. So they have to frame the park as a great Disney experience without raising expectations so high as to disappoint.

“This is tough. Disney is walking a tightrope here. But they have the money and the brains to make it work.”

Disney calls Animal Kingdom ‘the most innovative theme park in Disney history.” That means, in effect, that Animal Kingdom is not the Magic Kingdom, Disney-MGM Studios or Epcot, the three company attractions largely responsible for making this part of central Florida one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world.

Despite press release promises of “heart-pounding adventure,” Animal Kingdom opens later this month with only one legitimate thrill ride in operation, a roller-coaster-type adventure called “Countdown to Extinction,” in which passengers are whisked through the dark while dodging lunging dinosaurs and fiery asteroids.

*

Thus, rather than stand in long lines to board rides such as Space Mountain that have made Disneyland in Anaheim and the Magic Kingdom here so successful, visitors to Animal Kingdom are invited to escape from the asphalt jungle of the city to enter a lushly landscaped oasis of green that took 2 1/2 years to create in the midst of Orlando’s theme-park sprawl.

It’s not cheap. Admission is $42 for people 10 and older, $34 for those 3 to 9. Once inside, however, a fantastic bit of jungle, village and African savannah unfold with typical Disney detail and design. Visitors are directed along shady paths (artificially aged and imprinted with fake fossils) past animals in natural settings, through the faux riverside village of Harambe and, at the center of the park, up to the 145-foot Tree of Life, a massive, spiraling structure covered with hand-carved animals. Inside the tree, built of cement, is a 430-seat movie theater that screens an eight-minute film called “It’s Tough to Be a Bug!”

Dinoland U.S.A. replicates a dig site for prehistoric critters and includes a play area of slides big enough for adults as well as children. Camp Minnie-Mickey is an area set aside for shows and meetings with the costumed cartoon characters. Another area of the park, called Asia, is scheduled to open early next year with tigers, gibbons and a white-water rafting ride.

The educational and conservation messages Disney wants to impart are delivered through signs along the walkways and by ever-cheerful guides in an aviary and in Conservation Station, which includes interactive displays and a backstage look at the care and feeding of the animals. A petting zoo, called the Affection Section, allows visitors a hands-on meeting with goats and burros.

*

Conservation Station also houses the park’s veterinary clinic, which includes some windowed observation areas.

For Disney fans accustomed to musical extravaganzas on Main Street and stomach-churning rides like Splash Mountain, much of Animal Kingdom will seem decidedly tame. The colony of burrowing naked mole rats, though active, has limited appeal. The Chinese crocodiles and Reeve’s muntjac are often motionless for hours.

And though gorillas are fascinating, in large, open, forested exhibits they are not always visible.

“This park is a different flavor of fun,” said Disney’s Sylvain. “Disney has always been scripted and rehearsed, and now we’re dealing with animals for the first time and they aren’t rehearsed. So this is new for us in a lot of ways.”

Throughout the park are eight restaurants, including a Rainforest Cafe. There’s a kennel, child-care center and various souvenir shops, which sell everything from Disney coffee mugs to a stuffed Goofy doll dressed in safari gear.

Animal rights groups have announced plans to picket the official park opening, and Alexander, for one, still says the park could be closed down if Disney is found negligent in its treatment of animals. But that does not appear to be likely. USDA inspectors visited the park at least five times earlier this year and found it in full compliance with regulations governing cages, sanitation and feeding, according to department spokesman Jim Rogers.

The recent animal deaths will bring inspectors back for a closer look, Rogers said.

Necropsies on the cheetah cubs indicated that they died of kidney failure, which may have been caused by ingestion of a toxic chemical found in antifreeze and solvents. The animals had arrived at Animal Kingdom from another zoo two weeks earlier. Sylvain said there is no such chemical on the grounds of Animal Kingdom.

A white rhinoceros died while under anesthesia for a routine medical exam. A black rhino died after swallowing an 18-inch stick, which punctured an intestine and led to an infection. A hippopotamus died of blood poisoning.

Two Asian small-clawed otters died recently after eating the seeds of a loquat, a citrus fruit not normally a part of their diet.

The West African crowned cranes were killed in separate run-ins with the tram. The Humane Society’s Farinato said: “Stress goes up, accidents happen, and you do lose some animals” when a new zoo is opened. “In some way, this is perfectly predictable.

*

“But the poisoning of the cheetahs, the otters eating poisonous plants, cranes getting run over--they don’t fit in that kind of a pattern. You don’t expect to see management problems, especially when they [Disney officials] have the top in zoo staff expertise and an unlimited budget.

“We don’t know where this is going to go. What will tell is what happens in the next two years. If they educate and emphasize conservation, they’ll have a commendable, decent zoo. But I don’t know if we need a theme park which turns ‘The Lion King’ into a live animal adventure.”

Gordon of the University of Florida said he thinks Animal Kingdom will present major competition to nearby Sea World and to Tampa’s Busch Gardens, which long has paired exotic animals with several world-class roller coasters.

“I think they have seen the success Sea World and Busch Gardens have had in using animals to attract kids,” he said. “And it’s smart marketing to downplay ‘zoo,’ because people have zoos near where they live.

“But real animals are new for Disney, [which is] great at making mechanical animals appear when needed. So this lack of control is new.”

Meanwhile, preparations for the park’s opening are continuing. Last week, electricians and painters were still at work, restaurant staff members were being trained and crews from ABC-TV, the network owned by Disney, were taping a special featuring the music of funk-master George Clinton.