Kilimanjaro Safaris to be retooled

[Tom Morrow]

Kilimanjaro Safaris to be retooled


Say good-bye to Little Red:
Finale of DAK's Kilimanjaro Safaris to be retooled
Jim Hill Media
The Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney's Animal Kingdom is about to undergo a fairly significant rehab. Once the redo of this ride-thru zoo is complete, one of the events that used to drive the story of this DAK attraction (I.E. Little Red has been captured by poachers! And you - the Disney World tourist - must now cut your safari short in order to help save him!) will then be snipped from the script.
complete article

Sent from Ezra

[Kileli]

well, i guess that part wasn't really the best, so i am not too un happy. lol, Red got stuck on a tree that was down, and couldnt get off. luckily he did.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

So a farewell to the Big Red/Little Red storyline eh? Well leave it to Disney to know what to eliminate but have no idea what to replace it with & just leave an empty hole where something once was.

Having ridden the Safaris a year and a half ago & a month ago, I felt the part of that finale where our tour guide says, 'You all want to catch some poachers?!' and gets the whole jeep riled up is slightly over the top. I liked the whole evading the gunfire & helping catch the poachers. That was fun, I just wish they didn't villify people like that. We can teach our kids to protect natural resources without instilling a blood-boiling mortal rage in them at the same time.

Problem is that this finale also ties into the pre-show video, which no one watches, where we actually see Warden Wilson who pleas for an end to poaching. There also are many items in the queue regarding the evils of poaching, and the guests probably don't pay much attention to them either, but I'd wonder about them staying or going with this apparent abandoning of the poaching angle.

I say I'm in favor of this now, if for the sole reason that I'm so very sick of environmentalists being less concerned about the accuracy of their data & more concerned with instilling that blood-boiling rage & villifying whom they declare as evil. It shows me that most of their argument is weak, so they have to resort to manipulation tactics like the burned out rainforest in Kali, Al Gore's documentary, and all that goes on in public schools. The real problem with doing stuff like that is you teach people to hate. Once people learn to hate, there's usually no going back. This then makes the truth a very difficult thing to find in the endless argument.

One thing that article got wrong is the zoo-angle. Haven't they heard? Disney's Animal Kingdom - Nahtazu!

-- PMM

[Ezra]

We've just been given access to the most exclusive part of Visions Fantastic's game preserve: The Rumor Mill

[xfkirsten]

Hmmm... I really agree that the "Dead Big Red" was a little too much - conservation shouldn't be about scare tactics like that, especially not in a place that's meant to keep people happy. Personally, I really like the attraction as it is now. I think they do a good job of balancing information about the threat of poaching (which is a huge danger to many species in Africa and elsewhere) with the joy of an informative safari ride. I'd really hate to see that strong conservation message go, because, IMHO, that's why we have these animals in zoos - to teach the public about their plights in the wild and how to better appreciate and protect them. You can't do that if you don't know there's a problem to begin with.

[LoehnWolf]

OK maybe the storyline is over the top, maybe over dramatic but lets be real what will they replace it with, Disneys "The Wild"? lets see where they go with it before we condemn the old version, because in a year we may be begging to have the old version back, and we all know its not the first time disney has changed something for the worse.

[PeoplemoverMatt]

Didn't sound like they were going to replace it with anything, and that'd be just fine with me. Nice outdoor photo safari w/ Warden Wilson communicating from above, still very fun. Works for San Diego Wild Animal Park, Lion Country Safari, etc etc.

..and if they need to replace the storyline, Jungle Cruise on wheels anyone?

-- PMM

[xfkirsten]

Originally Posted by PeoplemoverMatt

Didn't sound like they were going to replace it with anything, and that'd be just fine with me. Nice outdoor photo safari w/ Warden Wilson communicating from above, still very fun. Works for San Diego Wild Animal Park, Lion Country Safari, etc etc.

..and if they need to replace the storyline, Jungle Cruise on wheels anyone?

-- PMM

I think that learning information is well and good - it is important to understand a species place in the ecosystem - but I think that a lot of places are really missing the boat on the conservation message these days. It is important to let people know about the problems that are facing these animals, and not to pretend like it's just a passing worry. After all, if you don't know there's a problem, how can you help?

At the zoo where I work, there has been much retooling of the educational program to make it more action-based. We want our visitors to go home not only having enjoyed a day at the zoo, but having taught them about how these animals are faring in the wild, and what they can do at home to help protect wildlife. I honestly feel like that's where many zoos miss the boat - they teach people all the fun facts, but that's a bit like a US history teacher telling their students the trivia tidbits about the Declaration of Independence without teaching them about how the country came to be. It completely misses the point of the lesson.

I'm not saying that it has to be an entirely doom-and-gloom scenario, because I feel like that does more harm than good. I don't think they really even need Big Red's death (even in its glossed-over state) in there. But I feel like an animal's presence in a zoo is meaningless if they are not teaching people how to better protect their wild counterparts.