If you love animals, Disney’s Animal Kingdom might just be your favorite park in Disney World (it’s certainly up there for us!).

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

We love seeing all the animals (especially baby animals). We love riding on Kilimanjaro Safaris and hearing the male lion roar (he’s such a show-off). We also love getting up close and personal with animals at the Affection Section. More importantly, though, we love talking to Cast Members, who always fill us in on SUPER interesting information about the animals who live there.

We recently visited Animal Kingdom and Animal Kingdom Lodge and decided to learn as much as we could about the animals who call that park home.

Savanna View at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge

First, a Cast Member told us a little more about the addax (often referred to as the white or “ghost” antelope). Here’s the thing, this antelope is sort of like a chameleon in that it can change the color of its fur based on the temperature it’s in. If it’s hot out, its fur is white to help it adapt to the warmer temperature. But if it’s cold, the fur becomes dark brown to conserve heat. BRILLIANT.

©Disney

Another interesting thing we learned was about flamingos. Now if you’ve been on Kilimanjaro Safaris, you may have learned a little bit about these beautiful birds, like how their coloring is due to the special kind of shrimp they eat.  You might also know that a group of flamingos is called a flamboyance. (That never fails to make us smile!)

A flamboyance

We also just learned from a Cast Member that these lesser flamingos are the smallest of ALL the flamingos. Also, flamingos don’t have eyelids, so that’s why they bury their face in their feathers when they sleep; it’s to protect their eyes. 

It’s protecting its eyes

So the next time you visit Animal Kingdom or Animal Kingdom Lodge, please find time to talk to a Cast Member there. You never know what kind of interesting facts you can learn about animals!

We’ll keep you updated on ALL things Disney, so stay tuned to DFB for more.

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Have you learned any interesting animal facts from Cast Members? Share them in the comments!