Search Results for: blog disney scientists learn the language of elephants

The Noble Efforts of the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund

One thing I will never criticize Disney about is the good work done by the Animal Kingdom and its sometimes-partner the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund.  The two might technically be separate entities – the Animal Kingdom is a part of Disney World, and the DWCF is a philanthropic branch of the Walt Disney Corporation – but they often work together. Work together, of course, being an operative word.  The Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund is what it’s called: a fund.  While some employees might actually go out and do something, the primary purpose of the division is to provide financial support for … Continue reading →

Baby Animals at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

We interrupt your regularly scheduled details of the Animal Kingdom to bring a special post about the park: a highlight of all of the baby animals born there in the recent months. I could talk about the special tours and shopping found there (and I will eventually), but a choice between that and adorable baby animals? Please, I’m going with the cute. The most recent addition to the Animal Kingdom came in June, in the form of a baby okapi. Okapis look like they’re some kind of deer, or strange deer-like horses that are related to zebras, because they have … Continue reading →

Disney Receives Jane Goodall Leadership Award

In late September the Walt Disney Company received what I would consider one of the highest possible honors: the Jane Goodall Institute Global Leadership Award. This might not be a trophy for anything related to movies, and I’ve always said I wish that the company’s main focus was movies, but like it or not Disney’s a global conglomerate now. If they must be so, then at least they’re the type getting one of the top tributes a big company can get. The Jane Goodall Institute Global Leadership Awards are given out to people and companies whom the Institute, including its … Continue reading →

Disney’s Animal Kingdom Aids Orphan Gorillas

Anytime news breaks about Disney’s Animal Kingdom, you’ll see it here. I’m a total animal lover and so I keep a close watch on happenings at what just might be my favorite park at Disney World. I know I can’t really say it’s my favorite part of Disney World given that I’ve never been there, and it’s strange to consider that it might be something having nothing to do with fairy tales or fantasy, but I read about stories like this and I can’t help but love what I hear about the Animal Kingdom. At the beginning of June senior … Continue reading →

Marathon Monday at Disney World

Now there’s more than one way to earn a free day at Disney World. For 2010, those who volunteer in their local community can sign up for a free trip to Disneyland or Disney World. Next year, anyone who completes the Walt Disney World Marathon gets free admission to the park the following day. The official Disney Parks blog announces “Marathon Monday,” taking place on January 10, 2011. Everyone who finishes the 26.2-mile Disney World Marathon on January 9 can bring their finishers medal in place of a ticket to one of the Walt Disney World parks the following day. … Continue reading →

Disneyland Scholarships

The month-long period between mid-May and mid-June seems full of one thing: graduates. Starting with college graduations in the middle of May and continuing with the high school graduations scattered throughout June, it seems there’s a fete for a graduate everywhere we turn this time of year. Of course Disney, as famous as is it for throwing huge celebrations, has to get in on the fun. Every year the Disneyland Resort grants 10 high school seniors $5,000 each in scholarships to help further their education. The Disneyland Scholarship Program is about more than just good grades. Students who want to … Continue reading →

Disney Scientists Learn the Language of Elephants

I expect a lot of things from Disney, but science isn’t one of them. Well, I should amend that statement. Disney’s known for innovation in artistic fields, and sometimes that bleeds into the sciences with the architectural and other advances made by the Imagineers or at Pixar/the Animation Studio. But I never expect to hear of new scientific discoveries made, and published in professional scientific journals, by Disney employees. That’s just what happened this past year, however, as scientists from Disney’s Animal Kingdom teamed up with Oxford University and the zoological group Save the Elephants to study a herd of … Continue reading →

Become a Wilderness Explorer at the Animal Kingdom

If “Up” is one of your favorite Disney/Pixar movies, then Disney World’s Animal Kingdom has a great new surprise coming for you this spring.  Soon guests to the Animal Kingdom can become Wilderness Explorers, just like Russell from “Up.” Wilderness Explorers was the Boy Scout-style troop to which Russell belonged in the film.  An early version of this new experience was tested at the Animal Kingdom way back in the fall of 2011, and now it’s finally going to be making its debut this spring.  Wilderness Explorers isn’t a proper game like Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom; it’s closer to … Continue reading →

Koshik the Talking Elephant

Could our next best friend be an elephant?  Maybe not for most of us here stateside, where we’re not exactly equipped to properly look after pachyderms.  But the news out of a zoo in South Korea, reported by BBC News, shows that an elephant has entered the next stage of the human-animal bond: talking. Before now, the only animals we could conceive of really being able to replicate our speech were parrots.  Now elephants are joining the list.  Koshik is a 12-year-old Asian elephant that lives at a zoo in South Korea.  When he started making sounds that his keepers thought … Continue reading →

Kunekunes Come to the Animal Kingdom

I’m not a huge fan of zoos. I’ve been to enough in my lifetime that I’ve seen many small local ones, where a poor bored black bear ambles restlessly on a barred cement slab the size of my bedroom. If a zoo doesn’t take proper care of animals I can’t stand to visit it (as shouldn’t be surprising to anyone who reads my articles on the families.com Pets Blog), and as I make few trips into cities that narrows down my list. But when a zoo is done right, then I love it. My husband and I love nature documentaries … Continue reading →