Post
by Fantastory » Aug Sat 13, 2011 5:19 pm
I work at Animal Kingdom and oh boy, the wildlife. I love the little brown lizards, and we have these MASSIVE cricket-things. Maybe grasshoppers, I don't know, but they're yellow, black, and green and the size of my hand, and like to hang around Theater in the Wild and Everst. I let one climb onto my (latex-gloved) hand one day, then shook it off when I realized it had nowhere to go but up my arm. Those little feet are sticky! The ibis (little white birds with the long curved beaks) are everywhere and always nest in the trees on the Camp Minnie-Mickey side of Oasis bridge at night. The egrets (huge white birds!) congregate around the turkey leg cart outside Dinoland (cannibals) and I've seen them actually menace guests for their turkey. I haven't actually seen the snakes yet but I constantly have to tell people to not climb on a certain statue for fear they'll fall in and get bit. We have a surprising amount of mourning doves, too, that kids love to chase because they look like little grey pidgeons. The ducks love it everywhere - they especially seem to like the Camp funnelcakes - and you have to be careful walking around the Oasis because they fly low! One of these days they're going to whack someone in the back of the head. (Funny story, there. A friend of mine was backstage at AK with coworkers and two birds flew smack into each other in the air. They both fell down dead. The CMs were like "...what?")
The bunnies are sweet. We try to keep guests from feeding the wildlife as best we can (though they do it anyway) but a few weeks ago I found a little girl and her grandma sitting on an out-of-the-way bench and a bunny had come RIGHT UP TO them from behind (the bench was against a planter, so it was face-height for the girl). They were feeding it the carrots from the girl's kids meal and it was eating them right out of her hand. It was so cute and I've never seen a rabbit get that close to a human voluntarily, so I just watched with them until it got full and hopped away. Most adorable thing ever. Of course, it's fairly common for kids to be on the safari or near the majestic tigers and then "Look mom, a bunny!" *headdesk*
The squirrels. Good lord, the squirrels. They are everywhere at AK and once you feed them they DON'T go away. Especially around stroller parking - I spent 10 minutes hanging around Lion King strollers because a squirrel had actually chewed through a lady's bag for the food inside. I wrote her a note and moved the bag into the stroller, but the squirrel came back and just moved onto her other bag. It creeps me out when squirrels run right up to a human or don't run away when you shoo them or smack their tails, makes me think rabies. I found a family feeding a squirrel grapes once with their fingers literally one inch from its mouth. I moved the people back and went to shoo the squirrel off with my sweeper...little sucker attacks my broom! I do not like that squirrel. I've started naming the ones with distinctive markings.
"Gosh, Minnie. You've always been a princess to me." -Mickey